The Lost Princess vs The Prince of Darkness
by Gotham317
Summary: A crossover between Hotel Transylvania and Tangled. A Dracunzel love story. Mavis, Johnny, and Flynn don't exist. Rapunzel ventures out on her own in attempt to find the floating lights, only to stumble upon a hotel for monsters and crosses paths with Count Dracula.
1. Dracula's Prologue

**_Dracula's POV_**

I'm not one for stories, but this one holds very dear to me. In a kingdom, untouched by time. Hidden away in mountainous passes, lays a tale that has been told and retold for many generations. A tale so old it is only legend now. I know of this because my castle was not far from these lands where I lived a peaceful life with my wife Martha, when we heard about the newborn child. Until one night where we were attacked. Groups of angry villagers stormed my castle and burned it to ashes. My darling wife, my darling Martha, was killed by those hate-filled villagers. All because of the fear that was spread that we were vampires.

In this human kingdom, King Frederic and Queen Arianna lived in their castle and ruled over a human village called Corona. Soon the Queen will bore a child for her husband. But then, she became very sick. The King had become concerned as medicine men and healers all tried to save the Queen. But to no avail. As luck and fortune has it, the King hears of a special and rare golden flower that may save his Queen and unborn child. You see, a single drop of sunlight fell from the sky and from this small drop of sun, grew this magic golden flower. It had the ability to heal the sick and injured.

However, the golden flower is in the possession of a vain old witch named Gothel. She is greedy and cruel. She found this flower by chance as it landed in her garden she tended to, surrounded by a small ray of sunshine. This woman was possessive and vain, so she hoarded the flower's magic to keep herself young and vibrant. As she did, her hair changed the color of white to black, her wrinkles disappeared into smooth skin, and her bones strengthened so that she could stand upright. Her eyes remained the same color: the color of ice, and just as cold as she was. And all she had to do was sing a particular song that this wicked old witch invented.

 _"Flower, gleam and glow…let your power shine…make the clock reverse…bring back what once was mine…heal what has been hurt…change the fate's design…save what has been lost…bring back what once was mine…what once was mine."_

The King quickly races to see Gothel and asks for the flower to save his beloved wife and child before it is too late. Greed had consumed Gothel, so much that she didn't share the flower's gift, determined to keep it for herself as she has said, "I will not help some useless royals and their brat! The flower is mine!"

What a selfish old bitch! Gothel never considered that others needed the healing powers of the flower just as much as she did. This angered the King. And as a father, he would do anything for his family, even break morals and their trust. He made plans and stole the flower from Gothel. It was too late to stop the King from his theft of her precious golden flower. She was angry, but has a plan for revenge for the King's pilfering.

The golden flower was used as medicine, and the Queen recovered miraculously. Soon a royal baby was born. A daughter. At that time, my hotel that I had built for the protection of all monster kind was completed. Relief that it is finally has been completed comes over me. Living all these years in a manor alone has been…difficult. Now my plans that me and my darling Martha always talked about have been finished. All of the monster world will be welcome to my sanctuary from the persecution of humans at the Hotel Transylvania.

Flying to my newly built hotel, I saw something strange happening as I flew above the castle. A woman was being chased by many guards. "Stop her! The witch has stolen the king's daughter!"

Presently shocked at this, I flew down to stop this kidnapping. I guess you could say Martha would have done the same since she was sweetest and kindest and most special girl I have ever met. I flew in front of the cloaked thief and transformed, not caring that the guards and the King had seen this.

"Why must you kidnap something so innocent as a child?!" I demanded.

"I steal from the same that have stolen from me something precious! And you, Count Dracula, I recall you had something stolen from you too. Perhaps a wife?" the woman now known to my memory as Gothel said mockingly.

I was in shock. That was many years ago and she still looked the same age. How this could be, I was uncertain.

"YOU!" I shouted as my suspense turned into anger. "You deceived the townspeople in attacking my castle and killing my beloved! You shall pay!"

I lunged and transformed into a bat as I flew toward Gothel. She reacted quicker than I thought and stabbed my wing. The pain was great and I lost control of my flight. As I landed hard on the cobblestone, I transformed back, my arm bleeding but healing quickly. But not quick enough. Gothel was gone in a flash. I lost trace of her. The King had seen what I did to stop the witch. He offered me aid. It seemed he did not care that I was a monster. But after loss of my beloved wife, I was still skeptical and afraid for myself. Bitterly, I refused his aide and flew off as quickly as I could before the King could help.

And this was the last I have heard or seen of the hidden kingdom. There was no trace of Gothel or the King's daughter. I have continued to look but to no avail. She was gone. And with that I hoped she stayed like that. I had more pressing matters to attend. I had my hotel to run. Years had passed and rumors spread that a witch was seen lurking in the wood. It was said she also had a tower where she raised a girl. Lies were told to fellow ogres who kept the tower safe from any intruders. I heard of these rumors but I cared nothing for them, yet I should have.

Deep within the haunted forest, in a hidden tower, Gothel raised the child as her daughter, teaching her to sing the song that made her hair glow. Being the possessive old witch she is, Gothel didn't tell the child about who she was or how she came to have magic hair – hair that should never be cut. Because when Gothel first saw the sleeping infant in her royal, she sang to her and the infant's golden hair began to glow, just like the flower did, and it made Gothel young again. Thinking to take a little piece for herself, Gothel cut a lock of the girl's hair. But it instantly turned brown and lost its magic, and it turned Gothel old again. In fact, she didn't even tell her adopted daughter anything about the outside world, except that it was a horrible place filled with selfish people and evil monsters and that she is to never, ever go outside.

Every night on her birthday in the kingdom, the King and Queen made sure there were spotlights in the air, hoping their lost princess would see them and come home. The King's intention was also to bring monsters out to him and make peace with them after me being witnessed trying to save his daughter. After that, from what I have heard is that the King and Queen want to make peace with monsterkind and feels we are misunderstood. To me, it seems like another attempt to kill off monsterkind for good. I hope with my hotel, it will entice the monster society to see a safe haven and stay away from that kingdom.

As for the child, the walls of that tower could not hide everything. Every year, on her birthday, the long golden haired child saw the lanterns from the window of her bedchamber and dreamed of one day seeing those floating lights in person. Somehow, she knew that they were meant for her. That they were special. And that's only the beginning of how her life and mine would change forever.


	2. Her Life Will Begin

Another day. Just like every other day. A small green chameleon comes crawling out the window of a large tower. It hides in a dark corner behind some flowers. Panting wildly to try to catch its breath, the chameleon froze in place, not wanting to be seen.

"Ah, ha!" said a girl as she flung open the wooden slats to the window, looking for the small creature. As she looked and didn't see anything, she smiled mischievously knowing where the little reptile was hiding. "Well, I guess if Pascal isn't out here, I'll go look inside," the blond girl said.

She nonchalantly walked back inside, keeping an eye on the window. The chameleon named Pascal gave a sigh of relief and a chuckle that he wasn't found. Or was he? Some blond hair quickly wrapped around him. Quickly pulled out of his hiding spot, Pascal squeaked in fear.

"GOT YOU!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

Pascal panted hard as he was almost scared to death.

"That's twenty-two for me. How about twenty-three out of forty-five?" Rapunzel asked her little friend.

He frowned at the thought of more hide and seek.

The blond girl saw this and asked, "Okay, then what do you want to do?"

Pascal used his tail and pointed to the outside.

"I don't think so. I like it in here," using her head to gesture inside the tower, "and so do you," she said.

Pascal gave her a frowned stare and stuck his little tongue out in disgust. "Phttt."

"Oh, come on Pascal, it's not so bad," Rapunzel said as she started her chores before she could do whatever she wanted.

 ** _Rapunzel:_** _7 AM, the usual morning lineup_  
 _Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean_  
 _Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up_  
 _Sweep again, and by then it's like 7:15_

 _And so I'll read a book_  
 _Or maybe two or three_  
 _I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery_  
 _I'll play guitar and knit_  
 _And cook and basically_  
 _Just wonder when will my life begin?_

 _Then after lunch it's puzzles and darts and baking_  
 _Paper mache, a bit of ballet and chess_  
 _Pottery and ventriloquy, candle making_  
 _Then I'll stretch, maybe sketch, take a climb_  
 _Sew a dress_

 _And I'll reread the books_  
 _If I have time to spare_  
 _I'll paint the walls some more_  
 _I'm sure there's room somewhere_  
 _And then I'll brush and brush_  
 _and brush and brush my hair_  
 _Stuck in the same place I've always been_

 _And I'll keep wondering and wondering_  
 _And wondering and wondering_  
 _When will my life begin?_

 _Tomorrow night_  
 _Lights will appear_  
 _Just like they do on my birthday each year_  
 _What is it like_  
 _Out there where they glow?_  
 _Now that I'm older_  
 _Mother might just_  
 _Let me go..._

Rapunzel was an amazingly talented girl who could do basically anything you can imagine. But truthfully, she had been tired of being stuck in the same tower every day, and longed to venture out of the tower to see the floating lights. Lying on her bed, she put her hands behind her head, staring intently at the ceiling. She begins to count all the knots in the large dark wooden beams, just thinking what it would be like to see what those mysterious floating lights. Rapunzel often confided in Pascal and told him her dream of wanting to see the floating lights that came only on her birthday. She really wanted to see them up close because she knew they were special and she felt connected to them, somehow.

"You look like you could use a change of scenery," said a female voice.

This startled Rapunzel as she franticly began looking around on who was in the tower. She became frightened.

"Who's there?" the blond girl asked.

"Don't be afraid, I'm just a meager little shadow cat. Call me Salem," said the voice. Soon near the window came a shadow of a cat.

"How did you find this place?" asked Rapunzel.

"I travel in the shadows. The shadows of the hills and trees lead me here. I brought you something by the way. I think you should check it out," said the cat as she handed Rapunzel a pamphlet.

"Hotel Transylvania? What is that?" asked the girl.

The cat's answer was delayed as she was busy grooming her whiskers. "It is what it says. A hotel in neighboring Transylvania. You know I heard you talking about some floating lights? Yes?" Rapunzel just nodded as she looked over the pamphlet. "My master, the owner of the hotel could help you see those floating lights. His name is Count Dracula."

This perked Rapunzel's curiosity. "Would he really help me see the floating lights?"

"He would. He is a nice gentleman. Very chivalrous and old fashioned..." said Salem in a sly tone, "...and _very_ handsome."

Rapunzel arose from the comfort of her bed and sat up. With the pamphlet now in hand, she went over it. Reading it word for word, over and over again like she was trying to find some magical meaning to it all. Having spent too much time looking it over, her gaze moved to above her painting above the mantle. A painting of her seeing the gleaming and glistening floating lights off beyond the mountains, slowly rising behind hills and trees.

"I really want to know what those lights are and where they are coming from. I'm old enough now. Maybe Mother will let me go see them or this… hotel," she thought, hoping her mother would say yes. "I mean, how bad could it be just to see and then come back home? It shouldn't be that dangerous." Her birthday was only a three days away. Maybe she could have the best birthday ever by seeing this hotel and the lights. Rapunzel continued to daydream, wondering what it was like beyond these walls, if there were people just like her out there. What new places are there to explore? As her mind lay occupied with hopes and dreams, she never heard her name being called from outside.

"Rapunzel! Let down your haaaair!" yelled a woman's voice.

This startled Rapunzel. Regaining composure, she realized who called her name. It was her mother, Gothel.

"Quickly! Salem, you've got to hide. Pascal! Don't let her see you." Hiding the pamphlet first, Rapunzel told them as Salem quickly bolted for the shadows of the curtains while Pascal hid behind the curtain of the mantle, blending in with her painting.

Rapunzel came to the window and looked down to see her mother. "Oh, hi Mother," she said trying to hide the fact she was daydreaming.

"Rapunzel? I'm not getting any younger here," Gothel said staring intently up at the girl's face.

"Coming, Mother!" Rapunzel called back from the open window.

Sometimes whenever Gothel returned to the tower she would call, 'Rapunzel, let down your hair!' Hearing her voice, Rapunzel would loop her hair over a hook hanging above a window in the front of the tower and toss it out the window, all the way down to the tower and to the ground. Being a strong girl, Rapunzel hoisted Gothel up to the tower room as she hung onto her long hair. It was tiring but she was used to it. With many years of practice.

When Gothel ascended into the tower by way of Rapunzel's hair, Rapunzel greeted her, "Hi, welcome home, Mother."

"Ugh, Rapunzel!" Gothel sighed, removing her hooded cloak. "How you manage to do that every single day without fail! It looks absolutely exhausting, darling."

"Oh, it's nothing." Rapunzel shrugged casually.

"Then I don't know why it takes so long!" Gothel laughed teasingly, confusing Rapunzel. "Oh, darling, I'm just teasing."

"Okay," said Rapunzel, "so mother, as I was saying, in three days-"

"Rapunzel, Mother's feeling a little run-down. Would sing for me, dear?"

"Oh! Of course, Mother."

It had become a ritual for the two of them: Rapunzel would sit on a stool in front of Gothel while she brushed her hair, and Rapunzel would sing the song that made her hair glow and replenish Gothel's youth. Only this time, Rapunzel sang too quickly.

 _"Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse…"_

"Wait!" Gothel tried to calm her singing, but Rapunzel didn't listen.

 _"Bring back what once was mine…"_

"Wait!"

 _"Heal what has been hurt, change the fate design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine."_

It happened in a quick flash as Gothel's youth returned as the older woman had to brush Rapunzel's hair only a few times.

"Rapunzel!" Gothel scolded with a frown, and then grumbled, "Someone's feeling a bit perky today."

"Sorry, it's just that I haven't seen you all day Mother. Is everything okay?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yes, everything is okay. I've just been really… busy," Gothel replied.

"Does this being busy have anything to do with my birthday? Hmmm?" asked Rapunzel, giving Gothel puppy dog eyes as she folded her hand behind her.

The woman gave the girl a blank stare until a small smile came to her. "You know I wouldn't forget about my precious daughter's birthday. Your eighteenth birthday!"

Rapunzel was overjoyed and caught Gothel off guard in a quick hug. As they hugged, Gothel was reminded to ask the blond girl something important.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask what you wished for your birthday." Rapunzel looked at her mother with some nervousness. She turned away and walked to her bed and sat down in defeat.

"What's wrong, darling?" asked Gothel, sitting next to Rapunzel.

"Well, what I really want for my birthday is something you probably will not be able to get me."

"Now, now. You know you can have anything you want and I'm sure I can get it for you. Try me," said Gothel, putting a hand on the young girl's shoulder.

Rapunzel looked at her and took her mother's hands, looking serious.

"Please don't be mad at me for asking, but… for my birthday, could I… go out to see the floating lights?" the girl asked, saying the last part quickly, clenching her teeth together as looked away and closed her eyes, expecting to get yelled at.

Gothel was angry on the inside, but she knew Rapunzel would be asking this eventually. She remained calm and sighed at the girl. "Rapunzel, you're young and very curious about the world."

Rapunzel looked up at her mother and saw only kindness in her eyes which calmed her down. "If you only knew what the world was really like. Like I know it. It's very dangerous. Poison ivy, venomous snakes, thugs, ruffians, and even cannibal ogres are out there. All they want to do to young women is take advantage of them, rape them, and even eat them. It's too dangerous." Gothel continued as her kind smile turned to worry. "And there are some unexplained things out there like monsters. Mummies that leave curses, werewolves in the shadows ready to strike and devour you, and even men with pointy teeth called vampires who want to just control your mind, enthrall you for themselves, and suck all your blood. And you know what, my dear. These evil men and these evil monsters are all after your golden, long hair. They would stop at nothing to get to it and cut it off your head, killing you in the process." Gothel tried her best to scare Rapunzel out of leaving the sanctity of the tower where it truly was guarded by cannibalistic ogres.

Rapunzel's face was frozen. Her skin looked a shade lighter as her eyes widely stared at Gothel, full of fright. "C…C…Cut my hair?" she said as she took a hand and put it on her head terrified at the idea of losing her long, golden blond hair.

"Yes my dear. Why would you ask this when you are safe here and can have anything else in the world?" Gothel asked.

"I don't know," she sighed. "Maybe I'm just curious about what is beyond this tower. How the world is and… and what those floating lights are about. I mean, they happen every year on my birthday. Almost like they were meant for me." Rapunzel leaned against the fireplace as she gazed up at her floating light painting. "But with all the evil out there, I wouldn't be safe."

Gothel came up to the girl and gave her a deep embracing hug. It felt safe and warm to Rapunzel. "Now do you understand?" She pulled out of the hug and put her hands on the shoulders of the blond girl and stared intently into her. "Now you know you are safer here, in this tower where no one can get to you. Will you obey your mother and stay here?" asked Gothel softly.

Rapunzel looked at her and seemed sad. Not sad that she wasn't allowed but that she had made her mother upset.

"I'm sorry, Mother. I never meant to upset you. I promise I will stay here," Rapunzel said as her hopes of ever seeing the floating lights had died.

"There's my good girl. I have another errand to run, but I will not be long," Gothel said as she readied herself to leave the tower. "Be good, Rapunzel," she said as she climbed down the girl's blonde hair to the ground below.

"I will, Mother," Rapunzel called out.

An hour past by with Rapunzel still staring at the pamphlet that weird cat gave her. She sighed, thinking and feeling it was pointless to even think about going. Peering upside-down in the window came the black shadow cat. Rapunzel did not notice until the cat dropped on to the window sill and spoke.

"Are you going to keep staring at that pamphlet until it comes to life or are you going?" nonchalantly asked Salem as she cleaned her whiskers.

This startled Rapunzel a moment, then realizing who it was. "I don't think I'll ever get to see the lights. Or this hotel you told me about," Rapunzel replied in a defeated tone.

"But why not? You can leave anytime you know?" the cat asked.

"But Mother would be very angry with me. And she is coming right back so I wouldn't have much time."

"Listen, sweetheart, bend the rules a little. You can't be stuck in this tower forever! If you want to see the lights so badly, come to the hotel. Come see my master. I'm sure he will be _dying_ to help you."

Rapunzel thought about it. Would she have plenty of time to see the hotel and ask this mysterious Count Dracula to take her to the lights and be able to get back before her mother came home? She thought it would be like killing two birds with one stone, even though she would not do that to a poor bird. She would be able to see what this Hotel Transylvania is and see the floating lights. Making up her mind, she faced the black cat with a little smile.

"Rapunzel! Let down your haaaair! I have a surprise for you," came the voice of Gothel from below.

With a whispered tone, Rapunzel became worried her mother would see the cat and get suspicious. "She's here. You better…hide?"

Looking at the window sill, the cat was gone, nowhere to be seen. Quickly Rapunzel hid the pamphlet again as she rushed to pull her mother up. "Hello Mother! I have something to tell you."

"I don't think it's better than your favorite soup, it is?" asked Gothel. "Oh, and please, no more about the stars."

"No mother, it's even better. It's…"

"You know what I said dear. Please no more silly talk about leaving and these stars," Gothel interrupted as she pressed Rapunzel to stop. Her anger was building inside of her.

"But Mother, you would like it," said Rapunzel as she was about to pull the pamphlet out. "It's…"

Gothel could not bear it anymore. Her anger came out as she shouted at Rapunzel. "ENOUGH! YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS TOWER…EVER!"

The look of astonishment and fear came over Rapunzel's face after being yelled at. It almost looked like she was about to cry.

"Oh, great. Now I'm the bad guy," Gothel sighed as she slumped down in the chair behind her.

Rapunzel looked at her as her hand slowly fell off the drawer the pamphlet was in. She looked up at her painting of the floating lights watching her dream float away with the lights. She looked down at the floor, feeling determination to go see those lights, no matter what. She thought quickly and found the best way to accomplish this is to have her mother go away for a long time. A long trip to get her some paint. And she knew exactly what kind.  
Very quietly and calm, Rapunzel spoke to her mother, "All I was going to say, Mother, is that…I know what I want for my birthday now."

"And what is that?" asked Gothel, sounding annoyed.

"New paint. That paint made from the white shells you brought me," the girl replied.

"Well, that is a very long trip, Rapunzel. Almost three days' time," rebutted Gothel.

"I just…thought it was a better idea than the stars," sheepishly replied the blonde girl.

Gothel looked at Rapunzel and her pouty face. She couldn't say no to that and the fact that she is forgetting about leaving the safety of the tower warmed up her cold heart. She stood up and walked over to the girl and hugged her.

"Are you sure you'll be alright on your own for a few days?" asked Gothel.

"I know I'm safe as long as I'm here," replied Rapunzel.

Gothel gave her daughter a kiss on the top of her head. That evening, they made Rapunzel's favorite, hazelnut soup and enjoyed each other's company and ate the pie Rapunzel made for dessert. After dinner, Rapunzel made her mother a basket with fruits, cheese, and bread for her journey to the sea. They hugged one final time.

"I'll be back in three days' time," Gothel said. "I love you, dear."

"I love you more," replied Rapunzel.

And teasingly, Gothel replied back before climbing down her daughter's hair, "I love you most."

Rapunzel watched as her mother walked away from the tower. She stopped short of the secret entrance, turned around and waived one last time. Rapunzel waved back before Gothel disappeared into the shadow of the cave. As quickly as possible, Rapunzel put on a dark blue hooded cloak and made a small basket for herself and quickly ran to the window where Salem was again.

"Atta girl!" purred the cat, quite pleased with what Rapunzel had planned.

The long haired girl held the basket out to the cat and said, "Climb in."

"Oh, first class service. I don't have to climb walls, I'll let you do that," Salem said jokingly.

"There's one more thing," she said. "In the basket, Pascal," Rapunzel commanded to her little friend.

Pascal complied as he jumped inside the basket.

"Oh, now I have to share?" said the cat, sounding disheartened.

Rapunzel gave her a hard look.

Salem let out a sigh and finally gave in. "Very well."

Rapunzel jumped from the tower using her long hair, and her bare feet made contact with the soft grass for the first time. She ran to where the cat told her to go, feeling ecstatic about being outside for the first time. A little scared but her fears are brought down by her happiness.

Being so excited, she did not watch where she was going and almost stumbled upon a couple of large ogres. She stopped and hid behind a large boulder. She observed them for a while until they were on top of her, she tried to sneak by but accidently stepped on a stick. With a loud snap sound, one of the ogres quickly turns around and saw Rapunzel there. Catching her, he brought her up to his face and sniffed.

"Well, looky what we have here? A naughty longed haired chick who doesn't know when to listen to her mama," the ogre sneered.

Rapunzel tried to break free of the ogre's grip but couldn't. He was just too strong. Soon he started to pick at her dress and started to rip it.

"Hey! Be careful! You'll rip my dress!" as soon as she said this, the ogre ripped her dress.

His fingers moved up her squirming legs and his fingers were about to reach for her undergarment, exposing her womanhood. Rapunzel screamed and yelled as she knew what was happening. The ogre became horny after smelling her and knowing who she was. The ogre started to grab his large manhood and lightly stroked it in a fit of evil pleasure. Rapunzel was struggling harder, trying to break free of this rape. The dumb beast took both her legs in one hand each and spread them apart as he slowly lowered her closer to something she wished she never had seen.

Before the worst happened, Salem came up and used her claws to scratch the ogre's eye, causing him to cry out in pain and to drop Rapunzel. The ogre quickly recovered but only saw the shadow cat toying with him, getting his attention.

"Over here you stupid, horny beast," Salem shouted mockingly.

Rapunzel takes the opportunity to run into the dark forest where the other ogres dared not follow. Salem quickly caught up to the girl. Panting as she leaned against a scary-looking tree, she tried to catch her breath and to make sure she was okay. The bottom of her dress was ripped but she was not hurt.

"Are you okay, Rapunzel?" asked a concerned Salem, while Pascal peeked out in concern.

In a shaky but calm voice, Rapunzel answered, "Yes, I'm fine. My dress is not. He tried to rape me," she quickly said bouncing to and from the subject of rape and her dress.

"Now let's go before they get brave and follow us," the shadowed cat announced.

"But where is this hotel?" Rapunzel asked.

"Follow me."

Running as fast as she could, Rapunzel followed the shadowed cat, hoping to live her dreams in time, before her mother gets back and knows she was away. She even hoped this Count Dracula would help her. Little did she know she was going to be in for a very big surprise when she finds Hotel Transylvania.


	3. Welcome to Hotel Transylvania

Night had descended on an old gothic castle, located on the outskirts of Transylvania; it is surrounded by a dense, haunted forest, tall mountains, the land of the undead, and a foggy moat full of piranhas, making it totally secluded from the rest of the world and inaccessible to humans. Hearse-taxis drove down a stone bridge and up to the front entrance, zombie bellhops carrying in guest's luggage, and inside a grand lobby monsters socialized among one another. Descending from the upper right staircase was the owner of this castle, the most handsome and famous vampire the monsters have ever known – Count Dracula.

"Welcome to Hotel Transylvania!" he announced loudly in a proud voice.

The Day of the Dead Mariachi band began to play a lively tune as the Count walked down the red carpet, handing out itineraries to the passing guests.

"Human-Free since 1898. You're safest destination. Take an itinerary. I have personally designed a spectacular schedule of events, all leading to my good friend Frankenstein's wedding extravaganza in two days."

"We always look forward to coming every year, Count," said a smiling gremlin as he held his wife, "We enjoy the safety so much."

"Of course." Dracula shrugged with a smile. "That's why we built it." He handed a few more itineraries to a few more guests. "Yes, good evening." A pale Gillman spoke in strange gibberish language to which only the Count could understand. "Thank you, Marty. You look pale as well."

Just then, a suit of armor guard came running up to him. "Sir, sir, sir! We have an urgent plumbing issue."

"Plumbing? On it. Mr. Ghouligan!"

A zombie janitor staggered towards his boss.

"There is a clogged toilet in room 348," the armor continued.

Bigfoot gave a low growl in apology as the vampire looked up at him.

It's okay, we all get stomach aches, Mr. Bigfoot," Dracula assured him.

Mr. Ghouligan made a groaning noise as he looked at his toilet plunger.

At that time, a whole pack of werewolf puppies came storming in and began to wreak havoc in the lobby; running over guests, jumping up and down on the organ, and urinating on the furniture.

"Hey kids, reel it in! You're only supposed to make mom and dad miserable," Wayne the werewolf said as he and his wife Wanda, who is now pregnant with another litter, came in.

One of them was gnawing on the end of Dracula's cape when he picked up his cape while the pup still held on. "Now, now is that anyway to behave? This is a hotel not a cemetery," he said gently.

"Sorry, Uncle Drac," the pup said with the cape still in his jaws before letting go and scampered off toward his siblings.

"Drac, how are you?" Wayne greeted the Count as he and wife came over.

"Wayne, my old friend," Dracula happily said as he wrapped his arm around the Wolman's shoulders.

"Couldn't wait for this weekend, always great to get out of the shadows for a couple of days."

"The family looks beautiful. Let me just clean up their filth."

Wayne and Wanda's face dropped the moment Dracula said this.

"HOUSEKEEPING!"

Just then, witches came out of broomstick and proceeded to clean up the mess they pups made of the lobby. Meanwhile, the pups knocked over one of zombie bellhops causing him to drop one of the large packages being carried in. The box opened on impact sending Frankenstein's head bouncing out only to be caught by Dracula.

"Frankie my boy, look at you still traveling by mail, Mr. Cheap-o, huh?" Dracula greeted.

"It's not a money thing I have a train phobia, okay, I mean, at any moment now that engine could catch-"

"Fire! Yeah-yeah, 'Fire bad', we know," Wayne said, cutting Frank off.

Dracula glanced over to the bellhops trying to put together the rest of Frank, which is not going very well. The vampire handed over Frank's head to Wayne then rushed off to the pair of zombies assembling the rest of Frank's body.

"Augustus! Porridge head! Come on! Does that look like Frankenstein's head?" Dracula shouted, not noticing his cape moving on its own.

Wayne walked forward a couple of steps, "Hey Drac buddy, what's going on with your cape there?"

"What do you mean-AH! Who pinched me?" He exclaimed as he jumped before turning around.

"Guilty, you're irresistible," Griffin, the invisible man said, the only thing noticeable was a pair of brown half-rimmed glasses.

"Yes, very amusing, Invisible man hello, great to 'see' you," Dracula sarcastically said, causing him and the boys to laugh.

"Ahh, never gets old," Griffin took off his glasses, folded them, and smacked Dracula across the face.

Dracula stopped laughing and tried to take a swipe at his friend.

"Missed me," Griffin said before punching him in the stomach. The vampire tried a few more times but missed each time while hearing, "Miss me, miss me, miss me," in a teasing tone.

"Okay, you win, hold this bacon." Dracula slyly handed him the slice of bacon.

"Why am I holding bacon-Ahh! Ah-ah! Noo! Get'em off-ouch!" he shouted as the were-pups covered him head to toe, once again the boys laughed.

The laughing stopped and noticed a strong wind with sandy clouds forming everywhere and a large sand dune was piling up at the lobby door.

"Here Comes The Partyyyy!" Murray the mummy said as he slid down the mountain of sand.

"Hello Murray," Dracula said as Murray glided toward him.

"Drac, what's up buddy?" The mummy tried to hug his vampire friend only to miss.

"The sand! Murray, the sand! Always with the sand!" Dracula scolded the hefty mummy.

The wolf pups began to play in the mountain of sand, one of them throwing a sand ball at his brothers really hard.

Murray rushed over to the werewolf couple, "Wolfie, Wanda, Frank!" Murray grabbed Frank's head and roared at his face, Frank roared back, making they both laugh, while Murray hugged Frank's head, "I love this guy, he's always bringing it full tilt, Your looking skinny too, now that you're just a head."

"Oh-ho-ho, okay, you'll pay for that," Frank warned, then a zombie placed his head in his arm socket, he looked a little less than pleased.

"So what's up Drac? Hotel is looking off the hook," Murray said as he walked over to Dracula.

Frank leaned in toward Wayne and Wanda. "Hey guys, watch this," he whispered, then concentrated on his lower half which was currently located at the other side of the lobby and briefly used as a trampoline to two wolf pups before it jumped up and left them. It carefully sneaked over to Murray who was talking to Dracula.

"By the way, you were right about those directions," Murray told him.

"Oh, good. Good." Dracula nodded.

"Yeah. I took the Tigris through the Nile and there was absolutely no traffic."

The lower rear end of Frank appeared behind the mummy and broke wind. Murray's face dropped to a confused but surprised look while Dracula looked anything but amused by the outburst of flatulence.

"You're kidding me, right in my lobby?"

"Drac, I swear man, I-I don't run like that," Murray stuttered and everyone else was trying to hold back their laughter.

"Housekeeping!" Dracula called out.

A witch came zooming out on broomstick, retrieved the odor with a fire bellow, and released it into the fire causing a small explosion in the process.

A female mummy stared at Murray who said, "I was not the cause of that," but she walked off in a huff and Murray just sinks his head down in embarrassment while everyone but Dracula laughed.

A little black spider came down inches from the vampire's face, "We're ready," the arachnid said in a small cheery voice.

Dracula and the others looked up to see a beautiful banner saying, 'Congratulations Frank and Eunice' made entirely out of spider web giving it a silvery finish.

"Oh, if only Martha were here to see this with us," Wanda sighed.

"She's always here Wanda," Dracula said as he made a fist over his heart.

Everyone gathered around as Dracula began his announcement, "Okay friends," he stepped up onto a stool made entirely out of frogs, "I am so glad you are here to celebrate, a very special wedding for my best friend, Frankie, and his bride Eunice…and another successful year of refuge, from THEM!" He pointed to the nerd-like zombie, who turned on the slideshow projector, and the crowd of monsters gasped in horror as black and white photos of humans displayed before them doing normal things, but everyone seemed to misunderstand it.

"These are recent human images our surveillance has uncovered, they are getting fatter so as to overpower us, and they are wearing less clothing allowing more movement to strangle us, and are cutting open our heads and put candy in them, but they will never find us here. EVIL VILLAIN YOU WILL NEVER WIN!" Dracula shouted the final words out to the slideshow black and white photo of a little boy eating a frosted cupcake.

"Okie-dokie, fun starts in thirty minutes, right now I have to check up on the rest of the hotel," Dracula announced as he walked toward the elevator.

"Oh! Hey, Drac!" Frank called out.

"Yes, Frankie?" Dracula stopped in front of the elevator and turned to face his closest friend.

"We know it hasn't been easy for you living in the hotel all alone. Have you ever thought about meeting someone special?"

Though he dared not show it Dracula did long for some companionship, but he believed he could never love again after what happened to his beloved Martha. He'd be damned if a new woman met the same fate as his late wife. "Thanks, but no thanks, Frankie. I will never meet another woman because no one can replace Martha." He turned back to the elevator.

"You know you're not going to be single forever!" Frank pointed out.

"YES, I WILL!" Dracula roared with a hard stubborn edge, and then returned to his calm demeanor just before the door closed. He would never allow romance into his cold and empty heart again, or so he thought.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Eunice, Frankenstein's wife who was still in the box spoke up, "What's going on out there, are we at the hotel?!" She opened the box with one of her long fingernails and her head, held up by her arm, and continued to nag, "Frank, did you book us for a tandem massage? Did you get us a table at Hunchback's? Did you do anything?"

Griffin closed the box and sat on it, "You're welcome."

Eunice's voice was muffled but everyone could tell she was mad. "What's going on?"


	4. Zing!

The forest took on a surreal yet eerie quality as Rapunzel placed her hand flat against a tree, and then Salem's ears pricked up. With her enhanced hearing she heard something coming from a nearby pathway. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Rapunzel asked, looking at the cat.

"Someone's in trouble."

"I'll check it out."

"Rapunzel, wait a minute. You don't know who that could be."

"I think they need help."

She headed towards the part of the forest where the road was bigger. There was something in the road, she realized, something odd, and the shape of it that made her pause. She got too steps before the two beings, looked at her in shock.

Rapunzel took a closer step and they backed away. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Stay back human!" shouted the aqua-haired colored girl, as she lay on the ground, her scaly foot bleeding from a deep cut after having lost her footing while trying to push what appeared to be a hearse stuck in a small ditch.

Rapunzel blinked, concentrating on their strange, unnatural features. "What are you both?"

"I'm a siren, and she's a banshee, now stay back!" The siren bared sharp fangs and hissed.

"Yeah, I don't think so. Give me a second, and I'll have that out of there."

Being the strong girl she is, Rapunzel pushed with all her might. Feeling someone's weight shoved against the back of the vehicle, thee zombie driver put his foot down on the pedal to pick up speed. Once it was done, the hearse was free. Rapunzel noticed the siren's injuries, and gently wrapped her hair around her wound.

"What...What are you doing?" the siren questioned in suspicion.

"It's okay, just don't freak out." Rapunzel began to sing, slowly and gently, and her hair started to glow.

 _"Flower, gleam and glow…let your power shine…make the clock reverse…bring back what once was mine…heal what has been hurt…change the fate's design…save what has been lost…bring back what once was mine…what once was mine."_

Afterwards, the two female monsters stared at her, unsure of what to do, or think. The siren stared at her scaly leg, her wound suddenly gone.

"That… is…incredible!" The platinum blonde banshee breathed in astonishment. "Hey, are you a hybrid or a witch by any chance?"

"A what? No, I-I'm just me. I'm Rapunzel, and this is Salem and Pascal. It's nice to meet you." She gestured to the cat by the tree and to the chameleon in her basket.

Obviously, the two monsters only believed her to be a witch, a pretty one at that, or because she looked human she could be a hybrid. No human would ever have magic glowing hair. But they did not know what to think.

The banshee shook her hand and added, "The name's Bianca. And that's Sirena. Hey, you look like someone dragged you through a bush, are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, I recently escaped from a group of ogres because one of them tried to rape me, but I'm fine."

"OGRES!" Sirena hissed. "We hate those guys! Disrespectful, ruthless, gassy, cannibal, sexual predators they are!"

Bianca gave the blonde girl a sympathetic glance. "That must've been awful for you. You know, we're on our way to Hotel Transylvania, come with us."

Rapunzel's eyes lit up. "Oh, yes! Thank you!"

"Looks like luck is on your side, sweetheart," Salem purred.

The two monsters allowed Rapunzel to board the hearse from behind, and after closing the door firmly shut, the hearse began to speed down the forest road. Rapunzel had never felt more excited in her life. Going to this hotel meant this was her ticket to see the floating lights. Bianca watched her with a smile of her own. However, Sirena watched them, deeply worried. She glanced at the tunnel the hearse drove through a few times before frowning at them.

"Uh…Bianca," Sirena whispered, "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

"What do you mean?"

"She could be a human hybrid."

Rapunzel said, "Is there a problem with that?"

Sirena hesitated. "Hotel Transylvania is for monsters only. I'm sorry."

"M-M-Monsters…" Rapunzel stammered. She remembered her mother always warned her about monsters.

"And if Count Dracula sees you, or us _with_ you, we're going to be in a lot of trouble."

"But…But I wanted to ask this Count Dracula to…" Rapunzel didn't have the time to finish, because they had arrived.

Peering out through the curtained window, Rapunzel's eyes widened when she saw the large, gothic castle. "Wow!" The hearse parked at the front hotel entrance, and Sirena and Bianca climbed out from the back door, with Rapunzel in tow. Salem & Pascal watched from either side inside the basket.

"You better stay out of sight," Sirena said cautiously, "because you never know if..."

The girls realized too late that Salem had seen a mouse and disappeared until she had glided through the doors to get inside.

Rapunzel's eyes widened in shock and she pushed her way inside. "Salem! Come back!"

"RAPUNZEL!" Sirena and Bianca called out her name, but she had already left.

Meanwhile, Dracula walked out of the elevator, glancing around the lobby, knowing everything was going according to plan; his best friend's wedding was going to be perfect, even with all of his monster friends right here and safe from any human interference, nothing could ruin it.

"Salem!" a woman's voice shouted.

Something unusual caught Dracula's eye - a strange figure pushing its way inside. After the black cat returned with a dead mouse in her mouth, Rapunzel was about to scold her until she glanced up. Piercing blue eyes faced her alluring green eyes, without meaning to. There was a pinkish hue of light in their eyes and then it disappeared.

And the second Dracula looked up, he felt his stomach drop. "A human!" Images of angry mobs wielding pitchforks and waving torches flashed within his eyes. As Dracula lunged at her, Rapunzel screamed. Anger and hatred flared in his eyes when he cornered her in the rapidly spinning revolving door.

"Who are you and how did you find this place?" Dracula snarled.

The girl froze. She was at eye level with him. But she managed to speak. "Oh! Uh, I…I…I'm Rapunzel, and I was just sitting around at home. Then I heard about this hotel from your pet cat. And who's not going to go there, right?"

Dracula shot the cat a glare for luring a human to his hotel. But his eyes grew wide in horror that he remembered how Salem meowed and begged to bet let out so he did. He should have known Salem had planned this. If he hadn't let her out of his sight, none of this would have happened and he'd have been able to stop her. He turned his attention back to the blonde girl. "How many of you are there?"

"Just me. I wanted to go alone, but Pascal wanted to come." She gestured to the basket, but Dracula didn't see a 'Pascal.'

Glaring, Dracula squeezed her close to his chest and covered her body with his cape and a lot of gathered up blonde hair to make her appear like a giant hairball, trying to keep her out of sight. "I'm such an idiot! You have to leave." With inhuman speed, he shot out of the hotel. But he halted when more monster guests blocked his path. "Oh no."

"Excuse me, one of the piranhas in the lake is very rude, he ate my sister-in-law," said a lady gremlin.

"Be right with you." Dracula shot back into the hotel lobby, only to be stopped by the Hydraberg.

"Mr. Dracula, we asked for a room with a view of the pool."

"The room's fine. We want to book a massage."

"Swedish."

"Shiatsu."

"Aroma Therapy."

"We don't want hot stone!" They all said together.

"I'll get back to you, Mr. Hydraberg," Dracula said quickly as he left.

"See that you do!"

"That's Ms. Hydraberg."

Inhaling the scent of roses & dead mix, Rapunzel tried to concentrate. But it felt good, relaxing, like the soaps mother had brought her as a child. She let herself think for a moment and listened. She felt his pulse quicken and right then, she realized why her heart was beating fast inside her chest. Dracula navigated his way around the monsters, while keeping Rapunzel in his grasp, as if she could slip out of his arms at any moment.

"Drac, hey, Drac, how's the planning?" Frank asked, but his friend suddenly vanished. "Drac? Hey, where did you go?"

Dracula pulled the human girl behind a pile of luggage and, before she had a chance to react, he pushed her into a closet.

Inside the closet, Dracula pressed his ear against the door to make sure no one was coming.

Rapunzel held her basket and straightened her dress and her hair. "Wow, this room's kind of small for a big castle. Too bad there's no bed. Ooh! Look at these awesome dustpans they have."

"Quiet, you fool!" Dracula pushed her into the wall and started rummaging through her basket.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Rapunzel glared at him.

"What weapons are you keeping in this basket? Your pitchforks?" He questioned, peering inside.

With impeccable strength, Pascal clamped his mouth onto his long hawk-like nose and refused to let go.

"OHHHH! Get it off! It's hurting me!" Dracula screamed.

"Let go, Pascal." Rapunzel held out her hands for the chameleon to jump on.

Dracula rubbed his nose in pain, now understanding this 'Pascal' was nothing but a frog-like creature.

Salem chuckled at the vampire's misfortune of being bitten by a tiny reptile. "Well, don't you know it's rude to look through a woman's belongings?"

Dracula glared down at the black cat. "How could you?! You brought her here?!"

This time, Salem openly scoffed. "I wanted to bring her here, because of her hair."

As Rapunzel felt her pulse quicken, Dracula crossed his arms. "What's so special about it? Other than being sooo long?"

Rapunzel said nothing. She should have known this cat lured her here because of her hair.

Dracula leaned over her, until she felt her back press against the wall. "You need to go. No human has ever entered this castle. And if someone should see you…the safety of the hotel…the sanctuary…No one would ever come again!"

But Rapunzel gave a little laugh. "Ever come again. I love your voice; it's so over the top." But then a frightful thought came to her. "Wait! Since I'm the only one who knows about this place, will you kill me?"

"I can't kill you. It would set monsters back hundreds of years."

She let out a long breath, evidently relieved. Rapunzel then noticed some bellhop jackets and other clothing hanging on coat hangers and looked at them with interest. "Ooh. Check out these awesome costumes."

Dracula's eyes lit up. "Costumes." He put her basket down much to the blonde's surprise.

"Huh? Sorry, I-I need that. Everything I own is in there."

"It'll be right here," he said.

Dracula grinned, flashing white teeth and faced her. Martha's old dress levitated out of a crate and floated into his hands. In his other hand was a bucket of white paint.

Rapunzel's eyes widened. She realized what he was planning to do. "Oh no."

Using magic, he removed his cape and held it in front of her as he magically removed her clothing. She wiped the splattered cold paint from her eyes and lips, wiggling and screaming. When it was done, he stepped back and observed her. Her entire body looked pale enough, her lips he had black lipstick put on along with black nail polish, and the black dress fit her perfectly as if it has been made for her. After finishing her hair by braiding it with his powers, he passed a pair of black shoes to her so she won't have to go around barefoot. She put them on and her feet felt trapped, like she couldn't hold them anymore. Dracula had little time to react just as Rapunzel tripped and crashed right into him.

The impact for her felt cold and soft. She groaned and opened her eyes, and as she recovered from the fall, she saw a pair of blue eyes looking right at her. Everything then felt strange as if they were the only ones in the room and time seemed to stop. Their faces were touching. They were even close enough to kiss.

Rapunzel's face turned red. "Sorry." His handsome form was too much for her to take. But it was his eyes – remarkably blue – that didn't cease from captivating her. Her crotch heated up and she felt butterflies in her stomach. God, what is this feeling she had for him? Whatever it was, she liked it.

Dracula's face burned. Even after Martha's death, he remained a faithful widow, yet found this mortal girl painfully alluring. Her eyes resembled that of beautiful emeralds. Her delicate hand placed upon his heart caused it to beat faster. Her form lying against his own caused a strange feeling inside his chest. A craving. A craving he never felt since Martha died. His erection started to pulse in his pants. What is this feeling? He hadn't felt it since Martha.

Salem and Pascal looked at each other, and then back at the vampire and human in the room before them, until at last, Salem grew bored and shouted with annoyance, "How long is this going to take?!"

That broke the trance.

Clearing his throat, Dracula helped Rapunzel, still blushing, to her feet. Pascal jumped on her shoulder and hid behind her thick braid. Dracula escorted her out of the closet, his hands placed on her shoulders. He pushed the growing lust to the back of his mind and chose to concentrate on getting her out of his hotel.

Rapunzel had seen the revolving door getting closer to her. "Wait, why are going to the front door? Are you going to take me to the floating lights now?"

Dracula didn't listen as a wicked smile spread across his lips. He would finally be rid of this human nuisance. But then, a zombie bellhop followed his gaze on the blonde girl and smirked with a groan. He took her hand and began kissing it. Rapunzel could only look at him in disgust. The zombie's action made the vampire go into a protective stance as he shot the zombie a hard look and wrapped an arm around her waist. The zombie frowned and walked away groaning in disappointment.

"Thanks." Rapunzel whispered in his ear.

"Your welcome." Dracula didn't know why he felt that way when one of his zombies had looked at her like she was a prize, but he pushed it out of his mind.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula." Quasimodo, the head chef, unexpectedly came face to face with Rapunzel, and startled the vampire.

"Uh, hello?" Rapunzel greeted meekly.

"Oooh. And who is this lovely monster?" Quasimodo's yellow eyes gazed up and down at the blonde girl's figure and her beauty.

Another gesture that made Dracula protective as he pushed her behind him and said in a clearly distressed tone, "Not right now, Quasimodo."

The Count broke into a cold greasy sweat as Quasimodo's pet rat Esmerelda jumped on him and began sniffing at his cape. She squeaked, signaling she had found something.

"What?" Quasimodo frowned as his rat squeaked again but he scoffed in disbelief, "No, don't be absurd. It's not a human, but Monsieur Dracula."

Dracula chuckled nervously and awkwardly. "How ridiculous. It's me."

As the rat skittered towards her, Pascal, who appeared from behind Rapunzel's hair, gave a growl of annoyance at the pesky rat. Even Salem, close to her master's feet, hissed threateningly as she grabbed the rat and threw Esmerelda in the elevator.

The chef didn't seem to notice as he and a gargoyle waiter presented a dish of tonight's meal. "Monsieur, the devilled-lizard fingers."

The chuckling vampire ceased his awkward chuckles as he frowned. "Devilled-lizard fingers?! I asked for spleens in blankets!"

"You ugly fool, I told you spleens in blankets! Not devilled-lizard fingers!" Quasimodo used the gargoyle waiter for a scapegoat as he began battering him with a frying pan.

While Dracula was busy calming the chef, Rapunzel took that as the opportunity to stroll the lobby. It was incredible and reminded herself of the fairytale books her mother had shown her in her youth, but now, various monsters were standing around and speaking to one another. She went to take a step back, and retrace her steps – and nearly walked right into the figure standing right behind her.

"Careful," came a woman's voice.

Rapunzel turned and realized she was glancing at Wanda. Wanda and Rapunzel looked at each other in surprise.

"I'm sorry," Rapunzel apologized.

"That's alright, Miss…?"

"My name is Rapunzel."

"I'm Wanda," she said, her voice a soft gentle quality. "It's good to meet you." Wanda smiled; there was something about this vampiress she couldn't quite place, and tried to understand why. "I take it you've met Drac," she added, gesturing to him.

Rapunzel nodded. "He made me a little bit jumpy."

Wanda laughed. "Don't let him get to you. He's just, well, controlling at times."

While talking, Rapunzel looked around the lobby. She had originally thought every monster within earshot would be suddenly looking at her, but that wasn't the case. Neither of the monsters had noticed her hair, or seemed interested in it. The only two monsters to know of this were Bianca and Sirena. Thinking of them made Rapunzel wonder if she did the right thing to show them the magic of her hair. But Sirena had been injured and Rapunzel did what she had to do to help them. Where had they gone to anyway? She turned her attention back to Wanda, who remained polite with her.

"Has he given you a room yet?" Wanda asked.

Rapunzel shook her head. "Not yet." She paused. "He was pretty rude when we met."

Wanda gave her a sympathetic glance and replied, "Don't worry, he always comes across as a legendary and fearsome vampire, but he's a really a sweetheart once you get to know him."

After hearing the word 'vampire,' Rapunzel felt her spine crawl. Her mind rolled back to a past conversation which she had with her mother. He wouldn't hesitate to enthrall her, control her mind and do whatever he took to keep her to himself. She felt her pulse quicken. Even worse, she didn't know when he would strike. She did not dwell on it. Rapunzel made an excuse to collect her bag and disappeared into the passageway upstairs.

Dracula finally turns around to see Rapunzel wasn't behind him anymore. "Oh no!" He gasped, and then headed off to find her as soon as possible. Across the lobby, he caught a glimpse of her disappearing up the staircase and followed in pursuit.

"Wait for me!" Salem meowed in annoyance at being left behind.


	5. Wedding Planner

The door rattled on its hinges and with swift movements, the princess locked it. She searched for anything to barricade the door yet found nothing. With long fast breaths, she threw herself onto the bed and wept. If she had known he was a vampire…

Another sensation swept through him as fast as lightning. Rapunzel was conscious of Dracula's presence and of his being as though lapped in a storm of rage. As her eyes opened unwillingly, Rapunzel saw blue eyes distorted with anger.

Then he paused and she could feel the hot breath on her neck. She could feel the gentle, shivering touch of his cold hand on the delicate skin of her neck, just touching and pausing there.

Rapunzel closed her eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited; waited with a beating heart.

 _BAM!_

She got the pan up, hitting him over head, causing him to fall to the floor, and dragging him away from the bed in a fluid motion. A look at his features had her suddenly pausing to briefly gaze upon his handsome long face.

A squeak of annoyance came from Pascal, snapping Rapunzel out of her trance.

Not wanting to cause anymore damage to his face, she hauled him into a chair. She had to act fast. She pushed his arms to the side and fastened the rope of her long hair around his wrists. Then pulled more out and tied it around his waist. Rapunzel felt his muscles tensing and quickly backed a few steps away.

Using his tail, Pascal slapped the vampire's face a couple of times. Sensing nothing, he stuck his tongue out, prodding his ear.

Dracula awoke with a start. "AHH! What…? What's going on?"

"Struggling…struggling is pointless. I know why you want me here. And I'm not afraid of you."

"What?"

"Listen, Count Dracula, no matter what you do I won't let you enthrall me."

The vampire, being a gentleman and a nobleman of high class knowing how to speak to women, cleared his throat, spoke calmly and replied, "Where did you get such a ridiculous idea like that?" He didn't give her the chance to continue. "I don't know why Salem thinks this hair of yours is so special, but tying me up like this is completely unnecessary. So, please, let me go, and we can talk about this."

But the blonde girl refused to untie him. "So, what do you want with me, vampire? Is it my hair? Do you wish to cut it, sell it?"

"What?! No!" Knowing he had the upper hand, Dracula rolled his eyes and changed into a shimmering blue mist. Rapunzel backed away in surprise, but he returned to his original form and faced her. "Listen, the only thing I want to do with your hair, was to get out of it. Literally."

"You…? Wait. You don't want my hair?"

Dracula shook his head. "And I won't enthrall you or suck your blood; it's so fatty and you never know where it's been." He sat down gripping his forehead.

"So, vampires don't drink blood?" Rapunzel cautiously approached him as she sat beside him.

"No, I use blood substitutes. Either near blood or blood beaters. You can't tell the difference. Eh, may, where I ask, did you come from?"

"Uh, my tower." Rapunzel replied. "I was in a situation with the ogres, but I escaped them. Pascal, Salem, and I were being chased through the forest by those creeps and we stowed away into a hearse." She paused, not wishing to get Sirena and Bianca involved. Then she remembered what else her mother told her about vampires. "So, wow, you're really Count Dracula, aren't you? Like 'I am Dracula, bleh-bleh-bleh.'"

"I've never said that in my life. 'Bleh-bleh-bleh.' I don't know where that comes from." Frowning, Dracula got up.

"Um, can I just ask, what exactly is this place?"

"What is this place?" Dracula repeated. The breeze lifted his cape off the ground as the balcony windows parted open and the moon's ray of light fell upon him in a dramatic manner. "It's a place I built for all those monsters out there lurking in the shadows. Hiding from the persecution of human kind. A place for them and their families to come and be themselves. A place void of torches, pitchforks, and angry mobs. A place of peace, relaxation, and tranquility."

"Wow, so it's like a hotel for monsters?" Rapunzel asked with a grin.

A moment of silence before Dracula replied in a flat tone. "Yes, exactly. 'A hotel for monsters.' Way to sum it up."

As Rapunzel gazed at him, she thought about what he said. He didn't seem to want to hurt her or want her hair. She realized he was telling the truth. She noticed an old painting in the room, a picture of the very floating lights she had always seen on her birthday, this time floating over the hotel. She was surprised that the monsters knew about the lights too, so maybe this could be her chance to see them. "Okay, Count Dracula, can you tell me what these are?"

Dracula looked at the portrait. "Oh, you mean the lantern thing they do for the human princess? One of my guests thought they were beautiful and requested a portrait of that night."

Rapunzel's face lit up. It was just as she thought. "Lanterns! I knew they weren't stars. Well, in three nights, they will light up the night sky with these lanterns. You will act as my guide and take me to see the lanterns. Then I can return home to my tower and you can return to your hotel."

This time instead of annoyed silence, Dracula openly scoffed. "Ha! You don't know what you're saying. Out there humans are evil. So I doubt any human is going to let us stroll right in to the kingdom."

Rapunzel gave a sad frown. She looked down at Pascal as he brought his hands into fists. Salem gestured for her to continue and gave a look to say 'Show him whose boss.'

Now frowning angrily, Rapunzel marched up to him, looking him right in the eyes. "Something brought me here, Count Dracula. Call it what you will; fate, destiny-"

"My cat."

"So I have made the decision to trust you."

"An unwise decision."

"But TRUST ME when I tell you this…" She had him corned out on the stone balcony railing and spoke hard and clear. "You can throw me out whenever you like, but you will never get rid of me, so unless you take me to see the floating lights, I will leave you alone in peace."

It took a moment for Dracula to comprehend what he had been told. "I take you to see the floating lights, and then you go back to where you came from while I return to my hotel."

"I promise."

But Dracula only gave her a raised eyebrow in doubt.

"And when I promise something I never ever break that promise…" Rapunzel kept her stone face on as she finished in a firm tone. "EVER."

"Alright, listen. You gave me no choice. There's only one way to change your mind." Dracula changed into his bat-form. His eyes grew big and wide, and his bottom lip quivered as he gave little moans. This is called the pouty bat face.

Rapunzel was having none of it. As far as she was concerned, it seemed kind of annoying no matter how adorable he looked.

After seeing how this wasn't working, Dracula finally relented. "Fine. I'll take you to see the lanterns."

"Really?!" Rapunzel's frown vanished, replaced with a perky, excited smile. "Thank you!"

Surprisingly, she threw her arms around the vampire's neck for a quick hug before letting go. It took Dracula a second to inhale the scent from her hair. She smelled like cookies and shampoo. He couldn't understand why he liked it, but he didn't matter as he had to get her out of here. He placed his hands against the wall, where he pressed against a loose brick that led towards a secret passageway. Rapunzel looked on, stunned.

"Follow me," he ordered, just as he went in first in a mist of blue.

Rapunzel trailed after him, with Pascal on her shoulder and Salem clinging on to her long braided hair. The walls behind them closed. Two minutes later, Dracula found a burning torch and took Rapunzel's hand and led the way through an underground tunnel.

"Where are we going?" Rapunzel asked.

"Just getting us out of a secret tunnel to the forest and to the village where you can go see these floating lanterns," Dracula replied.

"So, can I ask you a question? Is that real, about the garlic thing?"

"Yes, I cannot have it. My throat swells." Dracula stroked his long neck as soon as the duo came to a labyrinth.

"Oh. Wooden stake to the heart?"

"Yeah, well, who _wouldn't_ kill?"

"What about sunlight? Do you turn to ashes as soon as it burns you?"

"No, it burns gradually." Dracula gave her a suspicious glare. "I hope you are not asking me these questions about my weaknesses so you can use them to take advantage of me."

"No! Of course not!" Rapunzel replied in defense. "It's just that my mother often told me scary stories about vampires when I was a little girl…"

Being distracted by Rapunzel's words caused Dracula to crash into the wall. Rapunzel flinched in sympathy. Dracula groaned and turned them around.

Coming to the first torch holder, Dracula said, "Ah. Here we go." He pulled the lever and the walls parted open.

It presented the duo a pink bed with two tiny fleas jumping on the bed. Rapunzel looked at them in confusion. Pascal stared at the tiny fleas in bewilderment while Salem looked on with a smile. Dracula gasped awkwardly at the tiny couple.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm a little lost. Yes, I know it's your honeymoon, I apologize. Go back to doing what you were doing."

They stepped back and the wall closed. Moments later, they were around the corner from the tunnel and walked into the next one.

"Do you know where you're going?" Rapunzel asked, worried they might get lost.

"I'm not down here much. It's meant to be an exit if humans ever invade," Dracula replied.

"So, I'm like the first human here, huh? That's really cool."

"Oh, boy. I think this is it." Dracula pulled the switch and the wall opened for both of them.

There stood a lady skeleton in the shower and she screamed. "AAAHH! What's happening?!"

Rapunzel put her hands to her mouth in surprise. Pascal's mouth fell open and Salem smirked.

"I'm terribly sorry," Dracula apologized, "My mistake."

Her skeleton husband appeared and snapped, "What is WRONG with your people?!"

A sponge had been thrown in Dracula's face just as the wall closed up. Pascal and Salem laughed amusingly. Rapunzel kindly removed the sponge from his face.

"Thank you," he mumbled.

Later, the two found themselves in a different tunnel, the height of the tunnel dropped low and they had to walk with their knees bent.

"I have to say, this place is amazing," Rapunzel giggled.

"If you're referring to those honeymooning fleas and the skeleton in the shower, then yes, this place _is_ amazing," Salem added with a teasing grin.

"Okay, I could really use some silence right now," Dracula growled.

The duo came down a staircase, only for Dracula to stop at the edge where the steps disappeared and a dark abyss right below. Rapunzel hadn't been paying attention so she nearly fell off the edge. Dracula used a free hand to grab her arm and pulled her back to steps and back up the staircase. As they ventured down another tunnel, they found another lever.

Dracula huffed as he pulled the lever, "All right, third time's the…"

Their eyes grew wide in shock to the sight before them. Dracula's friends were fighting with three zombies and beating them up. The room appeared to be a bar lounge with strange machinery. Dracula struggled desperately to close the wall with the lever, but he had been seen.

"Drac!" Frank called out.

Dracula pushed the blonde girl behind the wall and smiled sheepishly. "Yes, Frankie?"

"Hey buddy, what you been doing?"

"Don't move." Dracula whispered to Rapunzel before he got serious and entered the room. "Never mind that. What you been doing?"

"We wanted to practice your big number for Frank and Eunice's wedding and then these losers wouldn't get off the bandstand," said Wayne, with his mouth full.

"Okay. Put down Zombie Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven this instinct." Dracula ordered sternly.

Reluctantly, the three monsters tossed or butt-kicked or spat out the three zombies, and the group of werewolf pups ran off.

"Did you get to rehearse at all, Zombie Beethoven?" Dracula asked Zombie Beethoven, who groaned in response and shook his head.

"Listen Drac, we wanted to play something, like old times," Wayne explained, "We even thought maybe you'd sing with us."

Dracula chuckled awkwardly before he replied, "C'mon fellas. You know that I haven't sung in public since…Martha."

"Yeah, but we just thought how much, you know, my bride and I would love it," Frank said.

"I said NO!" Dracula's expression of rage with blood red eyes and bared fangs was so pure it struck Rapunzel like a physical blow. "Don't ask me again!" His friends looked terrified as Dracula resumed his oddly calm demeanor. "Okay. Now, let's hug the zombies. Let's all make up."

"Wow. He really scared you." Wayne gave a teasing smile at the golem monster.

"I wasn't scared. I was being polite. Okay?" Frank frowned in denial.

"I didn't know vampires can sing," Rapunzel said to herself. "But who is this Martha? And why doesn't he sing because of her? Where is she anyway?" Whoever she is, Rapunzel figured that she must be someone special to Count Dracula.

"Martha is…" Before Salem could answer, a little black spider dangled over her.

"Hello, there." The little spider greeted in a high friendly voice.

Rapunzel released a high-pitched scream. She stumbled into the room and fell over a table. Dracula glanced in her direction in deep worry as Frank marched right up to her with an angry expression. Quickly, Dracula shielded the blonde girl from the angry golem.

"WHO is _that?!_ " Frank demanded, pointing at the girl behind the vampire's shoulder.

"Oh, dear. Are these monsters going to kill me?" Rapunzel asked, fearfully.

"Not as long as they think you're a monster," Dracula whispered back to her.

"Huh? That's kind of racist."

"We'll talk later."

Rapunzel started making babbling noises in her throat. She walked around and stretched her hands out. "Bleh, bleh-bleh," she said this repeatedly.

"Is she making fun of you?" Frank asked, a bit worried and offended for his friend.

"No, no. Of course not. Because…er…" Dracula grabbed her and yanked her to her side, giving her a brief glare to make her stop whatever she was doing. He whimpered in slight fear, quickly thinking of an excuse to hide Rapunzel's humanity. "Guys, you see its Frankie and Eunice's wedding, so I want them to have the bestest specialist wedding of their life, so…well…I…needed some help."

"Wait a minute. You asked someone to help you?" Murray asked.

"Captain Control Freak?" added Wayne.

Rapunzel gave a little laugh at the nickname. But something about the way Dracula looked at her told her to compose herself.

Dracula straightened his collar and said, "It's 'Count'… And yes, I thought having a female contemporary would be useful."

"Yeah, he totally needed a new outlook," Rapunzel added with a smile, earning her a glare from the vampire.

"At least someone agrees," said Griffin, his floating glasses suddenly appeared.

"But, you don't ask for help," said Frank, with a raised eyebrow.

"No, no! I do!" Dracula said quickly, trying to prove it. "Look, I am very good, but I thought it would be even more bestest specialist when someone of the female species helped plan the wedding. After all it's not just about Frankie, your new bride could use some help from someone her gender."

"Uh, hello." Rapunzel waved awkwardly. These were the very monsters her mother warned her about, but every one of them gave smiles of friendliness at her.

"Well, Rapunzel, great to meet you." Frank took her hand and shook it, causing the girl to bounce up and down in cartoon style as the golem shook her hand and body.

Dracula couldn't help but hold back a smile.

When Rapunzel's hand was pulled towards the glasses, she hesitated, but Griffin greeted, "It's good to meet you, mademoiselle."

After he kissed her hand, she drew it back. Rapunzel couldn't help but grin bashfully to be kissed on the hand. Like Griffin, Dracula could also be chivalrous. He didn't see a problem with that. They were rivals already. The look on his face could tell clearly he didn't approve of the invisible man kissing the blonde girl's delicate hand. Rapunzel looked down at her hand and sighed with relief. Her makeup was still there. Pascal popped up on her shoulder while Salem made her appearance known by walking towards an empty table and jumped up on it and sat down.

"Uh, this is Pascal, my friend." Rapunzel gestured to her chameleon friend.

"He's a cute little fella," Frank leaned down with a friendly smile, but Pascal hid behind his mistress' hair afraid of the giant golem.

"It's okay, Pascal, he's friendly," Rapunzel assured the chameleon.

"Anyway, what else brings you here?" asked Griffin.

"Oh, uh, well, I wanted Dracula to take me to see the floating lanterns because I've been dreaming about them my entire life," Rapunzel explained, "so I came here right after some ogres attacked me."

The four monsters exchanged looks of shock and sympathy for the blonde girl.

"That must have been rough for you, babe," said Murray. "But you're safe here. No ogres or humans ever came here."

"Funny you should mention humans since she _is_ one," Dracula mumbled under his breath quietly.

Wayne soon got to the point for the girl's presence. "Okay, Rapunzel. Mr. Tight Coffin over here was planning to have these powdered lamo-s play at the wedding party."

The three zombies groaned sadly.

"So, anyways, we thought we could liven things up a bit." Frank brought the werewolf and mummy closer to his face as all three gave smiles.

Rapunzel's eyes lit up. "Wow! You guys play? Show me."

They played a classic tune, one that soon made everyone cringe, including Dracula and Rapunzel. The two exchanged looks of awkwardness. The tune even became like a lullaby to the guests in the lounge, putting them to sleep or out of pure boredom.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, guys. Stop." Rapunzel finally cut them off. "That's cute, but kind of dated."

Dracula smiled. "Yes. Thank you, Rapunzel." As he said this, the three smiling zombies appeared from behind him.

"You got to try something else." Rapunzel added brightly.

Dracula stared at the girl in confusion while the zombies groaned out "Huh?"

"Here let me show." Rapunzel got up on stage, took the microphone, and began to sing.

 _Wise men say only fools rush in  
But I can't help falling in love with you  
Shall I say would it be a sin  
If I can't help falling in love with you  
Like a river flows  
To the sea  
So it goes  
Some things are meant to be  
Some things are meant to be_  
 _Take my hand  
Take my whole life too  
For I can't help falling in love with you_

A crowd of amazed monsters gathered around the stage to listen to the new vampire girl. Dracula had a look of utter shock on his face, wondering what the hell was going on as this human girl was causing such chaos in his well-ordered world. However, that look of shock became something like fascination as he listened to her voice. So enchanting. So angelic. But he smacked his face to bring himself back to earth.

 _Wise men say only fools rush in  
But I, I can't, I can't help, falling in love with you_  
 _Like a river flows (Oooh)  
To the sea (Oooh)  
So it goes  
Some things are meant to be  
Some things are meant to be_  
 _Take my hand  
Take my whole life too  
For I can't help falling in love with you (x2)_  
 _For I can't help falling in love with you_

Before she could finish her song Rapunzel, who had done a little twirl, tripped over her long braid of hair and fell off the stage with a squeal and fell flat on her face. She sat up, showing that she was okay.

Frank picked her up and yelled excitedly, "I think Rapunzel is going to make this the…BEST…PARTY…EVER!"

Murray nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Maybe she can find a way to get me some chicks."

"We should do a dance contest!" Someone in the crowd suggested.

Everyone began talking all at once for ideas for the wedding. Rapunzel smiled bashfully as some of the monsters complimented her on her singing and one of them asked her for ideas.

However, Dracula levitated high above the crowd with a tone of finality. "We're not doing any of that! We've got to stay on schedule, all right?"

Frank rolled his eyes. "All right, Drac, all right." Then he smiled down at the blonde girl. "Rapunzel, you're coming too, right?"

"Sure. Maybe we could paint some decorations for the party." Rapunzel suggested.

"Sounds great!" Wayne agreed.

Dracula sighed loudly. "We don't have time for that."

Though nobody challenged him, Rapunzel moved her head to concentrate on him. "Well, maybe because you're always to uptight with everything."

Everyone went "Ooooh" at Rapunzel's remark.

Dracula clenched his fits, breathed quietly and replied in an overly sweet tone, "Rapunzel… can I talk with you for a minute?" He drew his hand under her arm, pulling her to a secluded area of the bar, and hissed, "What do you think you are doing?"

"I'm trying to help a little bit," said Rapunzel.

"I don't need help. I got this. Just do as I say and don't ruin anything."

"I'm not ruining anything."

"It looks that way to me. And second, if you want to see those ridiculous floating lights, why don't you get the hell out of here so you can't bother me anymore!"

As she glared daggers at the vampire, Rapunzel briefly began to think she'd made a mistake; a big one. Trusting this hot-headed vampire to take her to the floating lanterns. She had trouble before, with the ogres and it was possible that her instincts had grown sleepy. They were kicking in now, big time. She felt she was entering a situation she couldn't easily get out of. She faced the monsters, all of them smiling and saying great things about her and wanted to try her ideas eagerly. As Rapunzel fixed her gaze on them, she couldn't help but relate to the monsters. She dreamed of seeing the floating lanterns and these monsters wanted to do something new and fun. But neither of them couldn't because of either a protective mother or a controlling vampire. They certainly didn't look evil from what her mother told her. Could it be possible her mother had been wrong? She didn't know for sure. But one thing she did know was that these monsters needed help.

"How about a ball-dance?" Rapunzel shouted out to them, causing the monsters to look in her direction and suddenly all giving shouts of agreement.

Dracula cupped her cheeks to force her to look in his cold, piercing, blue eyes. "I told you, I won't have you ruining my friend's wedding. Now you will stop this nonsense once and for all!" He began to walk away back to the group of monsters.

"Hold on!"

The Count halted in his tracks as soon as Rapunzel spoke. Dracula turned to look at her.

"Maybe you should think about what your friends want for once. Find your humanity! Have you ever asked what they'd like? But, perhaps you don't because you don't care about what they want, because the only thing you care about is yourself! You like to do boring stuff…AAH!"

Rapunzel didn't have the chance to finish. A dangerous red light flared in the vampire's eyes. His long fingers dug into her arms and pushed her against the wall with incredible force and speed. Rapunzel tried to pry him off, but he was too strong. Pascal tried to help her, but Dracula shoved him off his mistress' shoulder. Leaning in closer to Rapunzel's face as Dracula glared at her dangerously with those red slit eyes, causing her body to shake. He placed both hands on the wall preventing her from going anywhere.

"You have no idea with WHO you are dealing with, human. This is your warning. You're in my hotel and you do what I say." Dracula snarled in a soft but dark voice. "If you don't do what I tell you to…I WILL enthrall you, or I can suck every drop of blood from your body and you will never see your precious floating lights ever! GOT IT?!"

Wide-eyed in terror, Rapunzel nodded. "Y-Yes, Sir."

A moment later, his eyes returned to their normal blue shade. "Good. Then it's settled." His hands left the wall as he smiled pleasantly.

The vampire's demeanor left the blonde girl shaken and she watched him announce to the crowd of monsters that the next activity was in the library. Rapunzel watched them go. Then she trailed timidly behind. She didn't know why but she felt her heart beating faster for no reason when he smiled like that or his crimson red eyes looking through her, causing her to feel less afraid of him. She pushed that feeling out of her head, reminding herself that he's just a vampire with no heart.


	6. Activity Night

This is worse than home. They had been playing for twenty minutes when Rapunzel felt her eyelids drop. By that time, an old gremlin lady held a rodent skull to her ear.

"N-27."

Rapunzel stamped her card and looked up. "Is there anything better to do?"

A few of the participants stamped the number they had on their cards. Dracula could only grin as he stamped his card, looking like he was having the time of his life.

"G-61."

This time, Rapunzel could not find the number on her card. She was about to listen for what was next when she heard Eunice shouting coming from across the room.

"Bingo! BINGO!"

 _CHOMP!_

An elderly gremlin lady ate Eunice's card in one bite.

"How dare you! Do you know what doctor made me?!"

"I didn't do that."

When Rapunzel glanced down at a sleepy Pascal, she came up with an idea to make the game less boring. Before Dracula knew it, Rapunzel was getting to her feet and resting Pascal onto the table. They practiced ventriloquism, which straight away got everyone's attention. Even Dracula, who felt his jaw clench.  
Most vampires didn't act like that. That was the first thing the monsters considered as they glimpsed at the blonde vampire in the library. The tiny green creature sitting on the table, as she moved its tail with light, gentle movements. She spoke in a way that made it appear that the words were being spoken by her chameleon. Every member of the Drac Pack laughed and tried copying the game.

As they were doing so, Dracula slapped a hand over his face. That did it! He reached out and snatched a terrified Pascal right out of her hands. Rapunzel reached out and tried to save her friend, but Pascal had already recovered his wits. With sharp, quick movements, he leaned forward and stuck his long tongue up Dracula's nose. The vampire released a high pitched scream and fell onto the floor. He landed on the ground with a thud. Rapunzel stretched her hand out politely and Dracula pulled himself up. She chose to ignore the displeased look on the Count's face.

An hour later, everyone gathered in the gym. The next session consisted of a contest of charades. One group tried to guess what The Fly, who was also the fitness instructor, was doing.

"Circles?"

"Fly?"

"Hands?"

"Film?"

The Fly hacked up spit and rubbed his hands together.

"Vomit."

"The Vomit?"

"The Throw Up."

"No. That wasn't a clue." The Fly said and stopped what he was doing.

Pretty much everybody who was watching mostly dozed off. A bored Rapunzel could hardly focus on what was happening, and Dracula eagerly watched the competition unfold. Salem looked ready to fall asleep as she curled up in her master's lap.

The next group was trying to guess, mostly the Hydra, the Griffin's clues which mostly looked like a pair of floating glasses moving rapidly.

"Nothing?"

"Emptiness?"

"Glasses?"

"Glasses shaking?"

"Glasses shaking sideways!"

"Through the Looking Glass!"

"Ugh. I stink at this." Griffin sighed and gave up.

Rapunzel signed in pure boredom. Then her eyes lit up as she got another fun idea. She began riding a penny farthing bike and cycled between the two groups. Every monster suddenly looked at her in awe; others got off their seats and gathered around to watch Rapunzel perform some tricks.  
One-by-one, they waited for their turn to try out the bike. Murray did it first, followed by a hand creature, and a small group of wolf pups. Bigfoot tried, but he fell and landed on the ground with a deep thundering crash, creating a hole in the wall. But this earned him applause from a few monsters.

In the crowd, Sirena and Bianca watched, applauding for their human friend. Salem watched from the bleachers with Pascal, both of them giggling in amusement. But Dracula gasped at what was taking place. One again, this human girl is causing chaos in perfect, well-ordered world.

The gremlin lady grabbed the bicycle and, before anybody knew it, she ate it in one bite. "I didn't do that."

The crowd gave a disappointed groan as Rapunzel looked on in shock. Seeing that the gremlin lady put a stop to this, Dracula sat up and began to step down from the bleachers, intent on giving her a harsh scolding for ruining the charades contest.

But he suddenly seemed to trip over one of the bleachers. As his large arms flailed about, Dracula fell right on top of Rapunzel, who let out a brief shriek. Both of their bodies made contact with the hard floor, mostly Rapunzel due to Dracula being on top of her.

As soon as their eyes met, Rapunzel found herself lying beneath the vampire as he had accidently pinned her to the floor. Their faces were very close together as Rapunzel gazed into the piercing blue eyes of Count Dracula, as he was staring into her own soft emerald colored eyes, making her blush incredibly red. Before she could say anything else, Rapunzel let out a quiet gasp as Dracula started to move his face closer to hers. Dracula's pale face began to blush a deeper red as his heart thumped louder in his ears and harder against his chest.

"OH… MY… GOD!" Eunice screamed in a mixture of shock and excitement.

Because of Eunice, Dracula snapped out of it as the forbidding memory of who she really was returned to his mind. He stood up and gripped his forehead in frustration. "What the hell was that? Why did I do that?"

Rapunzel also stood up, yet she continued to gaze at the vampire with really sad eyes as if there was some kind of sad longing, her heart ached with disappointment.

"Thanks for ruining the moment, Eunice," Griffin scowled in her direction.

"There was never a moment of…whatever it was!" Dracula snarled.

"Then why is your face red?" Eunice asked out loud in a teasing voice.

Dracula slouched in anger and embarrassment. To take his mind off that moment, he decided it was time for the last activity…pool aerobics.

Outside at the hotel pool an aerobics class was in session with the Fly as the instructor, among the attendees was Wanda. The Fly gave exercise instructions in his monotone voice, even when he tried to tell his students not to copy his spitting, an impulse he couldn't really help. In the background was a buffet, where Frank ordered some food for later.

Rapunzel made her way down the stairs to the pool area after having changed in a strapless, two piece black swimsuit with dark blue stripes. She looked at her surroundings in deep awe. When Dracula spotted her coming down the staircase, his pupils grew small and his mouth fell open at how beautiful she looked in his late wife's swimsuit, it complimented her slim figure a great deal. The moonlight's rays fell upon her skin and hair; it made her look like an angel descending from the stairs of heaven. After a moment of mesmerizing, Dracula slapped himself in the face to bring himself back to reality. Why does he feel so different around her? She's a human, the very species who hated and hunted his kind.

Rapunzel made her way to the speechless vampire. "Hi. How do I look?"

"You look beautiful." Dracula complimented her with honesty.

Rapunzel couldn't help but blush. "Thank you. But aren't you going to wear a swimsuit, too?"

"No, I'm only here to watch and see that my guests relax…" he continued in a hard tone, "…and not to be bothered by another one of your foolish antics."

"Excuse me!" Her upper lip snarled in offense and anger. "I've been giving these monsters what they always wanted, what they _deserve_ to have!"

"Hey, Rapunzel," Wayne shouted at a table with Frank, Eunice, and Wanda, "Come sit with us."

"I'm saved." Rapunzel was glad to hear her friends call her over, so she could get away from the cold-hearted vampire, and she made her way to the table to join her new friends.

Dracula could only remain where he stood as he watched her go. Hunched over and brooding, he watched as the human girl talked with his friends, trying to listen in on what they were all talking about, just to make sure she doesn't blow the elaborate cover he gave her.

A moment later, Quasimodo walked over to Dracula. "Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula, may I make you an omelet?"

"No, no, no, I'm not hungry," Dracula refused.

Esmeralda began sniffing the air and began squeaking in alarm.

"What! Esmeralda you smell it again?" Quasimodo asked loudly, and this made Dracula very nervous.

The rat squeaked again in response.

"HUMAN!" Quasimodo shouted.

"I AM hungry," Dracula quickly said as he swatted Esmeralda away and sent her flying into the unsuspecting Eunice's hair.

"Oh, Rapunzel, your birthday is in three days?" Eunice sounded intrigued.

"C'mon, that's just a coincidence," Murray said as he sat down with the group with a plate of black beetles. "First, we got a wedding coming up, and now we got a birthday coming up."

"Well, it's only in three days, and what I really want for my birthday is to see the floating lanterns," explained Rapunzel, in a dreamy state. "They ONLY appear on my birthday, and I can't help but feel like they're meant for me."

"You know what, I'll take fifty omelets," an overly concerned Dracula tossed Quasimodo, who was caught by one of the gargoyle waiters.

"You heard the man, make them!" Quasimodo yelled as he hit him with a pan. The gargoyle proceeded to make the order while he was hit over and over on the head.

"So, how old will you be in three days?" asked Wanda.

"In three days, I'll be turning eight…" Rapunzel didn't have time to finish because Dracula quickly swiped a bagel from someone's tray and got in her face.

"Oh, Rapunzel, my dear. I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you a bagel with scream-cheese!" He said with mock pleasantry.

The cheese spreading in question actually leapt up with a monster face and giving off a high pitched scream on the bagel.

"Oh. Uh, thank you…" Rapunzel said nervously as she held the bagel and it continued to scream at her, "…but I'm not hungry."

"Aw, too bad. Anyway, can we party plan for a minute?" Dracula took her by the shoulders and lead her away from the table, leaned over her in a scary position, and whispered to her in an annoyed tone. "What are you doing? If they find out you are human, they'll go bat-poop!"

"Relax, no one suspects anything," Rapunzel whispered calmly.

"And you cannot tell them your true age because it will give you away!" Dracula continued. "Vampires live for centuries, so you need to change your age to fool them. How old are you?"

"I'll be turning eighteen in three days."

"Okay, you will be known as a 118 year old vampire."

"And how old are you?"

Dracula raised an eyebrow at her curious question, but he told her his age. "I'm 226."

"Really?" Rapunzel's eyes widened. He looked centuries younger judging by his appearance. "You look like you could be twenty six, by my standards."

"Look, the thing is I don't want you messing things up for my friend's wedding!" Dracula warned her in a harsh tone. "Otherwise my friends will know something weird is going on!"

"Well...the only thing that looks weird is how much whispering we're doing."

Dracula suddenly noticed everyone nearby was watching them with curiosity and confusion. The Count gave an awkward smile as he pushed Rapunzel to another area. "Just wrap it up! You will say you're going in the pool and act excited, and then you'll say you hurt your back and you have to leave."

Growling, Rapunzel slouched over toward the pool and half-enthusiastically hollered, "Here Come Good Times! Wheeeee! Oh no. Oh, my back."

Suddenly an amphibious monster jumped right on his back. "I'm on your back!"

Dracula frantically waved his arms and tried to correct what Rapunzel meant to say, "No, no! She said 'oh my back!'"

"Get on my back!" A monster shouted and placed Bianca on his shoulders.

"Let's do it!" Bianca cheered.

"Aw, yeah! Here we go," Rapunzel shouted excitedly as she stepped in the pool. "Chicken Fight! Push 'em off!"

Everybody cheered and jumped into the pool all at once, except for a slouching, angry Dracula.

"I got you, Bianca, you're going down," Rapunzel challenged.

"Oh yeah, we'll see, Blondie," Bianca teased.

Soon everyone was in on the game and tried to push each other off the other monsters' back, laughing hysterically and enthusiastically.

"Okay, calm down with the fight chickens, everyone stop the rough-housing!" Dracula yelled, but obviously, nobody was listening.

Bianca and the amphibious monster, who was on Rapunzel's back, knocked each other off. Sirena jumped in with a big splash, just a few feet away from Rapunzel and Sirena. Her legs transforming into a sparkling, scaly tail with fins. She rose up to the surface and gasped when Bianca splashed water in her face. With a sly smirk, Sirena created a huge wave to engulf and crash upon Rapunzel and Bianca, but most of the water splashed right on Dracula, still standing at the pool's edge, and frowned in growing frustration at this humiliation as several monsters pointed and laughed at him.

Gustav, the giant octopus, raised one tentacle high in the air with Frank on top.

"Frank, if you hurt yourself!" Eunice yelled from below.

"I got it, Honey. The Stein boy's a bread for this kind of thing. Geronimo!" Frank said before he jumped, slowly fell on the way down, landed flat on the pool's surface, and broke apart.

Wayne tip-toed over to Griffin, who wore his usual glasses and a pair of plaid swim trunks, he chuckled slyly and pulled down his trunks causing Griffin to scream like a girl. Wayne just casually stood close by while his kids and everyone else around them laughed.

"Kids, why'd you do that?" Wayne smirked.

Griffin quickly pulled up his trunks. "Oh, I was just in the pool, the waters cold. Don't judge me!" He ran off.

Dracula walked around the pool to try and find Rapunzel, but when he found her, the vampire started to panic as he noticed something wrong. "Rapunzel, your make-up. Your make-up!" Dracula placed his hands on his head worriedly. He reached over and grabbed Rapunzel's wrist. "Climb out now...OHH!"

Suddenly Dracula was pulled forcibly into the pool when a monster lifted Rapunzel up onto his shoulders.

"Oh dear, I guess the Count wanted to go for a swim to cool off that hot head of his," Rapunzel said jokingly, causing everybody around her to laugh.

Under water, Dracula begin to spaz out screaming his head off, letting out bubbles from his mouth for Rapunzel's insult, or so he thought it sounded like an insult. He swam down towards the plunger and pulled the plug for the water to drain out.

But at the moment, Gustav lifted up Rapunzel high into the air.

"Wahoo! Cannonball!" Rapunzel took a big leap from the giant tentacle.

The water below was starting to go down the drain as everyone started to notice it happening.

"Uh-oh." Bianca looked up at her human friend in deep worry. "Rapunzel, look out!"

Hearing her name, Rapunzel looked down and began screaming in terror.

Dracula took notice of the falling girl and let out an annoyed sigh. He froze the human girl in place, walked away as his shoes made a clanking sound, he came back as he placed Blobby in the spot where Rapunzel will land, and unfroze her.

Rapunzel landed safely inside looking like a piece of fruit jello, she mouthed the words 'I'm okay,' but Dracula frowned, clearly not happy with the outcome.


	7. Ogre Ambush

An hour later, Dracula and Rapunzel walked through the cemetery together. She had her arms folded as he carried her by the scruff of her dress. Pascal sat on her shoulder the whole time, frowning. Salem scurried after her Master through the shadows, looking just as peeved as the beautiful blonde and her chameleon.

"Oh, you messed up, baby," Dracula growled. "You messed up big time. l told you to take it down. You'll ruin my hotel if they find out."

"Well, maybe you're just jealous that people are finally having fun here," Rapunzel retorted.

Dracula put her down and exclaimed, "Oh, that? That was not fun. Everyone running, jumping, swimming with no order. That was the opposite of fun."

"Do you even know what fun is?"

"l invented fun!"

Rapunzel looked away with a dark scowl and mumbled, "Why do the wrong people get to be immortal?"

Dracula scowled at her insult. "Look at me," he ordered as he covered half his face with his black cape in a sinister way and his eyes began to glow red, then began to say in a hypnotic and soothing voice, "You remember not..."

As Salem gave a look to the chameleon as if to say 'He's going to erase her memory,' Pascal leapt forward and used his tongue to plunge it deep into the vampire's ear.

Instantly, the red glow within the Count's eyes faded away as Dracula got really squeamish. "Oh, that is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!"

Salem burst out laughing, rolling her back across the dried grass.

"Wait. What do I remember?" Rapunzel shook her head to shake off the eye contact.

"Stop doing that. Please stop doing that! Tongue away from the ear! Enough!" Dracula pulled the long slimy tongue out of his ear, grabbed Pascal in a tight grasp, and placed him back in his Mistress' open palm. He grabbed her shoulders in a tight grip and growled in an angry threatening tone. "Listen to me. You are never to return here. You are to stay away and never tell humans about this place. Or l will track you down and suck every ounce of blood from your body until you look like a deflated whoopee cushion!"

For some reason, he seemed to get a little taller and frightening as he made these threats. Rapunzel cowered before this angry vampire.

Finally, he took hold of her arm. "I'm taking you home. I'm letting you off the deal."

"But, no..." Rapunzel stammered, shocked. "The lanterns..."

"I DON'T CARE!" Dracula roared in response.

It took another ten minutes until they exited the cemetery and reached the forest. Rapunzel was devastated. She should never have trusted a vampire to take her to see the floating lights. She had been dreaming about them her whole life and could not deal with another night of watching from the windows. But this vampire hated humans, including her, but she had never hurt any of the monsters she met. While Rapunzel loved his monster friends, she could not understand why the monsters admired Count Dracula when he made their fun activities so boring and lame, not to mention he is so over-controlling, dominant, and sarcastic. For all she knew, Rapunzel was not going to let this vampire scare her into going home when she was close enough to get her dream to come true.

"NO!" Rapunzel freed herself from his grasp and pushed him away. "I am not leaving until I see those lanterns!" she announced determinedly.

Dracula scowled at her again. "WHAT?! Oh, c'mon! What's it going to take to get you out of my sight?!"

Rapunzel glared bravely at him and shoved the frying pan in his face warningly, "I _will_ use this." And then she asked out of the blue. "Why do hate me so much when I did nothing wrong? Why do you hate humans so much?"

But it was too late for him to answer. The ogres had been standing behind them, waiting to ambush. In a split second, they had launched forward and had separated the vampire and the human girl by locking their arms around his small skinny ones to keep him from attacking. One of the ogres had the tip of a knife pointed at Rapunzel's throat.

"Well, well, well..." a deep voice said." The ogres stepped forward, backing his prey against the trees. The leader looked her up and down and gave a dangerous smile. "You didn't think you'd escape from me, would you?" They stalked forward, like a wolf cornering a rabbit.

"Get away from us," Rapunzel exclaimed bravely and raised her frying pan.

The ogres were having none of it. They mocked at her courage, sensing her fear. Dracula had tried to fight back to defend himself, but the ogres struck him with their fists so hard, he coughed blood and saliva from his mouth. They drove fists into his eyes and his head flopped back. They struck him again. The ogres distinguished a loud cough in his throat.

Rapunzel looked on in horror. Even though the vampire had been a complete jerk, he didn't deserve this. The ogre reared his fist back to prepare another beating for Dracula. Rapunzel got an idea and looped her hair around one of the branches that had been broken and heaved. There came an ear shattering 'BAM!' as the heavy branch struck against the ogre's rock hard head. Slowly, he and his allies turned around to see the stubborn girl glaring dangerously at them, stunning Dracula into silence. It was a lot to take in. He'd misread her nervous state – he thought she was afraid because of the stench of death. But, no...she had saved him.

"PUT HIM DOWN!" she yelled. "Or so help me I will do it again if you lay another hand on him!"

This time, the ogres didn't mock her. The one who got hit over the head by the branch approached her in a threatening manner. Rapunzel readied herself. But two strong arms grabbed hold of her wrists while two more tore a part of her dress down.

"You're going to pay for that, bitch!" The ogre behind her sneered.

The ogre who came towards Rapunzel began pulling his pants down to expose his manhood and then said, "Oh, this'll be fun."

A beaten and bruised Dracula felt a sudden rage grow inside him. He felt disgusted by what he understood when she first mentioned her situation with the ogres. And creatures like them cause people to believe his kind were the monsters. Even though he thought Rapunzel was a nuisance, the Count had the sudden urge to suck the ogres' blood, making sure none of them lived to hurt or kill or eat or rape this sweet, innocent girl ever again. His heart raced as he watched the ogre reach for Rapunzel's legs. Then he stepped in front of her, wanting to put his hand out and touch her, but he couldn't. They had to protect each other, save each other from these monsters.

Dracula bared his bangs as his eyes turned red. "LET HER GO!" he roared as he lunged forwards to sink his fangs into the horny ogre's neck, draining his blood in a matter of seconds. But just as he was about to finish another ogre brought his knife down, the tip of the blade piercing right into the vampire's arm.

"NO!" Rapunzel screamed, and just like that she slammed her whole body right into the ogre that wounded her friend. She couldn't believe what he had done, gruesome thought it was. More than anything, she was still reeling from the revelation that he was protecting her. Clearly he didn't seem to hate her after all.

"Come on!" Salem yelled.

While the ogres were distracted by the sudden death of their friend, Rapunzel took hold of Dracula's wrist and lead him away as quickly as possible. It didn't last long just as the ogres began to pursue them.

But the vampire and the human girl knew nothing of the drop. They didn't even register it until the ground disappeared from underneath their feet. Rapunzel screamed. A pair of strong and slender arms wrapped around her waist. She squeezed her eyes shut, grappling the arms as she was lowered towards the safety of the ground. She opened her eyes and was met by a pair of gentle blue eyes.

Releasing his hold on her, Dracula crouched down and faced the still terrified human girl. "It's over, it's over," he repeated between breaths, "Don't be scared."

Unable to speak, Rapunzel nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Dracula nodded back.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault." Rapunzel apologized in a tone of guilt.

"No, no, no, no. Don't say that." Dracula comforted her soothingly. "Don't blame yourself for what those monsters tried to do. But, you know, I've got to say, that was pretty impressive. I didn't know you had it in you back there."

"I know." Rapunzel smiled slightly.

As the two of them trudged deep into the tunnel to find a way out, Dracula broke the silence. "So, Rapunzel, where are you from?"

"Nearby, I suppose. I live in a tower."

"But don't you lived in a human village."

"Of course not. The people, or humans as you call them, can't be trusted. Mother says humans are evil."

That earned her a bewildered look as Dracula paused suddenly and lifted an eyebrow. "Wait a minute! Your mother said that?"

Rapunzel nodded.

He didn't give her the chance to continue. "What? But _you_ are a human. Why would your mother tell you such things? And by the way, if you wanted to see the lanterns so badly, why haven't you gone before?" There were questions about her he wanted to know and he was sure she would answer them.

All of a sudden there came the sounds of thumps, the ogres grunted from their fall and started to get up.

Rapunzel froze, mouth open, eyes wide. "Run."

Dracula promoted, "Run!" He pulled her with him, heading down the passageway as fast as possible.

"After them!" One of the ogres yelled just as his group started their pursuit.

Rapunzel once tripped over a rock and fell. Dracula turned back and lifted her in his arms and suddenly began to run at incredible vampire speed. But he didn't pay attention to what was in front of them when he turned one glance behind them to make sure the ogres were not following them, his feet made no contact with the ground when he, along with Rapunzel, fell down a dark, watery slide. The ogres stared down at them when their prey vanished in the tunnel, and after seeing they didn't have a chance, they grunted and left.

 _SPLASH!_

Two beings landed in a huge underground lake. Dracula and Rapunzel emerged to the water's surface, gasping and coughing frantically.

"Rapunzel, are you alright?" Dracula asked with deep concern.

"I think so," Rapunzel replied. "But where do we go from here?"

Looking up, Dracula spotted a large open gap in the wall. He transformed into a bat and tried to fly out, but the stab wound in his wing prevented him from getting anywhere near the open gap. "It's no use. I can't reach it. Not with this injured wing."

In a feeble attempt, she gathered the bat into her arms and tried lifting him up, but the vampire stopped her. "Hey, there's no point. It's too high."

With pure, heart-rendering grief, the waterworks started again for Rapunzel. "This is all my fault. Mother was right, I never should have done this. I'm so sorry I got you into this, Dracula."

Dracula frowned sadly. Then, he felt a strong emotion he hadn't felt since Martha died. "Vlad."

"What?"

"My real name is Vladimir Dracula, but I prefer to being called 'Drac.' The name reminds me of my Father, whom I never got along with. Someone might as well know."

Rapunzel gazed at him with sad but happy eyes. It was as if he was revealing a secret to her, thinking they were going to be trapped here forever or drown if they didn't stay float for long. "I have magic hair that glows when I sing."

Dracula's eyebrows dropped. "What?"

Suddenly realizing what she had said, Rapunzel repeated, "I have magic hair that glows when I sing! _Flower gleam and glow. Let your powers shine_..."

A bright light filled the dark cavern. Dracula shielded his eyes at first then opened them. He gaped, dumbstruck at Rapunzel's braided glowing hair, "WOW!" It was like fire from the very sun. How was this possible when she was just a human?

Because of the light, the two became aware of a nearby exit. With his incredible vampire strength he struck the wall with his fists so hard that it rattled and felt his hand plunge out into the open air. Another punch, combined with his weight, Rapunzel's weight, and the water's weight, broke the rocks loose and both of them fell out into stream that lay just beyond the cemetery.

After climbing to the surface from a very hasty swim, Salem and Pascal rushed to their aide.

"Are you two okay?" Salem asked concerned.

"We're okay. We made it." Rapunzel sighed with relief, happy to have made it out of the dark cavern.

But for Dracula, he was on the verge of freaking out. "Her hair glows. I didn't see that coming."

"Drac."

The vampire looked down at the two animals. "Her hair actually glows."

"Drac."

Pascal nodded, while Salem smirked, "Why do you think I brought her here?"

"YOU _KNEW_ ABOUT THIS?! WHY DOES HER HAIR GLOW?!"

"Drac!" Rapunzel yelled, loud enough to get his attention.

"WHAT?!" Dracula roared back, still in shock and holding his injured arm.

Rapunzel grinned as she held her braided hair. "Drac. It doesn't just _glow_."

Cat and Chameleon watched the vampire with mischievous smiles.

"Why are they smiling at me?" Dracula asked in constricted panic.

Extending her hand out, Rapunzel helped Dracula to the shore. She sat down on her legs, gently placed the end of her braided hair to the spot where he had been stabbed, and he winced as he felt a sharp pain in his wound.

"Sorry." Rapunzel grimaced, and added. "Just...don't freak out."

"Why would I freak out when I already did because I just found out you have magic glowing hair?" Dracula asked sarcastically.

Rapunzel wordlessly stared at him. She was still unsure whether or not she should tell Dracula her secret, because in the beginning he was sarcastic and over-bearing, but she felt he had changed during their intense encounter with the ogres. Maybe it was the simple face he defended her and told her his real name, but she saw him differently now.

 _"Flower gleam and glow...Let your power shine...Make the clock reverse...Bring back what once was mine..."_

Rapunzel began to sing in that beautiful voice Dracula remembered back at the bar, just as a stream of light spread from the top of her head and crawled down its length. He gazed at her hair in deep astonishment. No human has hair that can glow when he or she sings, but he noticed Pascal pointing at his tiny arm smiling. Dracula glanced at his arm, apprehensively seeing the hair about it flash like fire. He felt his arm grow hot, but it didn't burn.

 _"Heal what has been hurt...Change the fate's design...Save what has been lost...Bring back what once was mine...What once was mine."_

When Rapunzel reached the end of the song, her hair stopped glowing and returned to its normal color and luminosity. She looked up at Dracula, watching as she gently pulled her hair away. The vampire's eyes grew large as he stared in numb disbelief at his healed, flawless skin where a minute before had a stab wound.

Dracula glanced at this human's magic hair, then back at his arm, switching the two as though he couldn't understand which scared him more. His mind raced with questions. Why did this human girl have magic hair that not only glows but it heals wounds? Why did she come from? Was she a hybrid child of a witch and a human?

Dracula opened his mouth, ready to scream, when Rapunzel placed her hands on his mouth and pleaded, "Please, don't freak out!"

The Count felt the readied scream in his throat die into a whine and he hastily brushed her hands away from his mouth, muttering quickly, "Uh-I'm not freaking out, are you freaking out? No, I'm just suddenly very interested in your hair and the magical qualities it possesses and how long has it been doing that, exactly?"

"You _are_ freaking out." Salem snorted.

"Shut up!" Dracula growled at the snickering shadow cat. "It's just humans don't normally have magic hair that glows and heals when your sing."

"As to the answer for your question, Drac..." Rapunzel added with a shrug, "Forever, I guess."

"Okay, we have a lot to discuss on the way back." Dracula stood straight up, grasping Rapunzel by her wrist to help her stand.

"You're still taking me back home?" Rapunzel gaped in surprise.

"No...uh, yes...I mean..." Now Dracula found himself confused and conflicted. She was the worst species he had ever hated, but she had magical qualities that only witches of his supernatural world inherited. However, he felt grateful towards her for protecting him when he received a brutal beating from the ogres. He will decide on her leaving for later. Right now, he had questions and he was going to get some answers. "Let's get back to the hotel."


	8. Do I Love You?

Dracula and Rapunzel walked together through the forest, travelling along a different route than the one they'd taken before. He had no desire to see the ogres again. Nor did he wish to recount the memory of their attack. Everything he'd experienced worried him. He thought of how Rapunzel had almost been attacked. Every moment he'd spent in the presence of the ogres stank of fear. Rapunzel, beside him, stayed quiet throughout the walk.

Then, they approached a coven with a large, open gap. It was also shaped like a face. Dracula knew where it lead to and suddenly thinking of a way to cheer up poor Rapunzel from the attack, he said, "Follow me."

She looked up at him confused but then noticed he was walking ahead to the open cave. "Okay," Rapunzel sighed as she trailed after him, not knowing where they were going.

Finally, after an hour of going through a series of tunnels, they both exited from the chimney that was on top of the hotel. She followed the vampire to the middle of the roof and Rapunzel was in deep awe by the view she was seeing. "Whoa!"

Pascal's expression matched that of his mistress while Salem just stretched her paws out and laid down to rest, having seen this view before with her master.

"The view up here is incredible," Rapunzel sighed. "You can almost see where the lanterns appear."

Dracula cast a puzzled glance at Rapunzel. "You still want to see them?"

"Like I always said, I've been dreaming about them my entire life, of course I want to."

Dracula chuckled. "I meant to ask, uh, about your hair?"

Rapunzel became silent for a moment. Hesitating, she answered his question. "Oh, yeah. My hair. Mother said when I was a baby, people tried to cut it. They wanted to take it for themselves." She held her hair away from her neck to expose a small lock of brown hair, "But once it's cut, it turns brown & loses its power. A gift like that, it has to be protected. That's why Mother never let me…that's why I never left…"

Dracula gave her a sympathetic look, finally putting it together. "You never left that tower?" She nodded in silence. "And you're still gonna go back?"

"No! Uh, yes! Uh, I mean..." She ran her hands over her face and turned away in sadness. "It's complicated."

Pascal gave his mistress a sympathetic face while Salem listened in on their conversation.  
Dracula reached out a hand, as if wanting to hold her hand or pull her into his embrace to comfort her. He, of course, knew what it was like to forever hide away because of the cruelty of humankind. He built this hotel to protect his own kind while this human girl remained in a tower to protect the magic of her long, golden hair. "Rapunzel, I..."

At that moment, Rapunzel looked out to the mountains in the distance and noticed the sky changing color to signal the approach of the rising sun. "Wow. The sunrise here must be amazing."

"Ouch!"

Rapunzel looked back to see Dracula pull his legs out of the sunlight, realizing that vampires can burn in the sun. "Oh, I'm sorry, you've probably never even seen the sunrise before, have you?"

"No, not really," Dracula explained. "Why do you ask?"

"C'mon, I have an idea." She grabbed his hand to help him to his feet. They ran across the roof until they reached a large chimney nearby. Rapunzel stood carefully in front of Dracula to block the sunlight from him. "Watch."

Not understanding what this human girl was up to, Dracula looked over Rapunzel's shoulder and his eyes widened at the most beautiful sight he had never seen before. After a few minutes, Rapunzel stepped up behind Dracula and put an arm around his waist as she gently pulled him away from the light so it wouldn't touch him.

"This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen," Dracula whispered in awe.

Suddenly Rapunzel lost her footing and slipped on a loose roof piece. As she fell, she pulled Dracula down with her. His body crushing against her own. He turned himself around to find himself face-to-face with once again those alluring emerald eyes.

"Sorry!" Rapunzel apologized in embarrassment.

"Are you alright?" Dracula asked in concern.

"I'm fine. I just slipped."

"Oh, good."

Looking into those beautiful emerald eyes of hers, Dracula's breath hitched in his throat when he saw the light reflect off her eyes, almost as if they were real emeralds. As he studied her eyes, something stirred inside of him.

Dracula felt the sudden urge to kiss her. He tilted her chin up a bit and began to lean in. Rapunzel let out a small gasp as he came closer to her face, once more staring up into his astonishing sapphire eyes. Their faces came so close their lips almost touched, but then Dracula suddenly pull away as though some opposing fear forced him back. After everything he had worked so hard to protect, he could not afford to betray his friends. If they found out about her, they could never trust him again. Even worse, what would Martha think?

"Drac?" Rapunzel looked at him worried. "Are you okay?"

But the vampire drew away from her, coldly, as he turned his back on her. "You need to go."

"But, Drac..." Rapunzel approached him, but the Count pushed her aside.

"Be gone," Dracula said, waving his hand in dismissal.

He exited to a nearby roof window in a mist of blue. The blade of guilt pierced his heart, but he wanted to do the right thing. Rapunzel watched him go, sad and confused. Pascal leapt onto her shoulder and chirped worriedly.

"It's all right," she murmured, unsure if her words rang true.

She couldn't believe they'd been close enough to kiss, and thought about it for a moment. She didn't know why she wanted him to kiss her, but couldn't understand why he rejected her and ordered her to leave all of a sudden just when they were sharing a moment.

Rapunzel crept inside the roof window where he'd disappeared, with Pascal and Salem clutching her hair to hold on. She wasn't sure where he'd went, so she took the nearest corridor on her right - and nearly walked straight into a familiar female golem.

"Hey, sweetie," Eunice greeted, "Wanda and I are going to the spa. Would you like to join us?"

Rapunzel nodded. "Yes, thank you."

Eunice noticed her friend's sad look. "You seem upset. What's wrong? Did Quasimodo put the moves on you?"

Rapunzel held her friend's gaze, looking confused by what she meant for a moment. "Uh, no. I took a walk near the cemetery, and the same ogres that attacked me found me. Drac was there, and they attacked him too...and one of them tried to touch me...but Dracula saved me..."

Eunice, knowing what this meant, drew her arms around Rapunzel's shoulders. "You're safe now, sweetie. That Drac gave them what they deserve. In fact, there's a good pedicure we can get that'll make you feel better. What do you say?"

Rapunzel gave a little laugh. "I'd like that."

"Good." Eunice looked down at Pascal and Salem. "But you two can't come. Remember what happened last time you snuck in, Salem?"

"You better not bring THAT up!" Salem hissed, before taking Pascal away by carrying the scruff of his neck with her mouth like a mother cat carrying her kitten.

Rapunzel and Eunice linked arms and headed towards the spa. Though Rapunzel was very concerned for Dracula, she decided to find him later. A trip to the spa was just what she needed after everything she had been through.

* * *

Elsewhere in the hotel, Dracula had been pacing back and forth in the lobby. His thoughts brought him back to that almost kiss with Rapunzel, and his sudden feelings for her. He wondered how this could have happened when he remembered their first meeting in this very lobby. What he felt for her the second their eyes met described the very same feeling he felt for Martha on their first encounter. But the more he thought about it, it seemed true on one half and it seemed impossible believe on the other half. Dracula truly and desperately wanted to be around Rapunzel, because these strong feelings grew hard to resist, but the guilt for his lies and a traitor to his late wife's memory and monsterkind reminded him she is the very species he hated and despised because of the pain he endured of human's persecution and the death of his darling Martha. He vowed to never again feel anything for Rapunzel. Humans and Monsters don't belong together.

"Hey, Drac! What have you been up to?"

Dracula halted in his tracks to see Frank approaching him with a friendly smile. "Nothing, Frankie, I was just, uh, taking care of hotel business, you know."

"Well, I know it hasn't been easy planning my wedding," Frank said as he put a friendly hand on the vampire's shoulder, "The ladies went to have some fun in the spa. I think we should do the same, what do you say?"

Dracula smiled at his friend's suggestion. "You're right, Frankie, we do need some fun, and I know just where to have some fun. Gather the others and meet me in the sauna."

At this point he was willing to do anything to take his mind off of Rapunzel, even if she and her little pet frog were finally gone, or so he thought.

* * *

In the hotel spa, it looked like a once Medieval dungeon complete with spa equipment looking mostly like torture devices of varying kinds, such as an iron maiden used for acupuncture treatment, tables for stretching, and an octagonal shape cauldron which was the hot tub, which Rapunzel now relaxed in. Her friends, Eunice and Wanda, were also enjoying themselves; Eunice and a lady gremlin were getting deep tissue messages from Gustav, who happened to be the hotel's spa supervisor and head masseuse, while one of his other arms adjusted the temperature for Rapunzel in the hot tub, and Wanda and purple faced hag lounged comfortably nearby with their eyes covered with cucumbers. These ladies wore nothing but white towels that covered their own bodies, except for Rapunzel being completely nude in the water.

"I definitely needed this," Rapunzel sighed happily.

"I told you we needed some girl time," said Eunice.

"It's not often we get time away from our husbands," agreed Wanda.

Eunice let out a sigh of content. "But, I'm still curious. What's going on between our new friend, Rapunzel, and Drac?"

This made Rapunzel nearly sit up straight in a snap as she heard this, startled and very embarrassed by the very mention of it. "What?!"

"You and Drac," Eunice gave a teasing smirk. "What's going on with the two of you? Do you like him?"

Rapunzel scoffed. "Pfft, no. C'mon, you guys. He is such a control freak and is so overbearing. It's like are you an idiot, or do you know you're _adorable_?" She finished her sentence with a dreamy look in her eyes.

The spa became silent. The purple faced hag and the lady gremlin looked baffled. Eunice and Wanda, who removed one cucumber from one of her eyes, glimpsed at Rapunzel first and then to each other at what she just said.

"Oh. My. God." Eunice almost squealed in excitement. "She DOES like him!"

Wanda removed both cucumber slices from her eyes and spoke, "Well, I think you should give him a chance. Like I said before, he's really not so bad once you get to know him. It just hasn't been easy for him since he lost Martha."

"Martha?" Rapunzel raised an eyebrow, remembering she heard that name before in the bar.

"And a pretty girl like you, he'd be an idiot not to see how special you are," added Eunice, "Darling, you have a lot to offer."

Rapunzel gave a small smile, thinking they may be right. She had a hard time admitting to herself she might actually like Count Dracula. He did save her from those dreadful ogres. He took her to the roof to show her the view. And she showed him his first glimpse of the sunrise. But she still couldn't understand why he rejected her? Was it because he almost kissed her?

She thought about this for a short while, and then noticed something strange with the color in the warm water of the hot tub. Rapunzel gasped as she realized it was the white paint of her makeup as she took out her hand and it started to look a healthy peach instead of pale, which meant it was starting to wash off. Quickly she got out of the hot tub and wrapped a towel around her body, hoping it covered enough of her true human complexion to keep Eunice and Wanda from suspecting anything.

"Where are you going?" Eunice asked.

"Sorry, I have to go, uh…take care of, uh, something I promised Dracula. So, uh, I got to go." Rapunzel ran quickly out of the spa, hoping she didn't look too suspicious, and ran into what she didn't expect to see.

"Get away from us you...you...mangy mutts!" Salem hissed as she backed up into a corner by Wayne's pups. Pascal clutched on to the fur of her neck.

"Hey, leave them alone! Bad pups!" Rapunzel had only taken a couple steps to the small pack of growling pups when one of them let out a painful whine.

Using her claws, Salem struck out at one of the wolf pups and, with Pascal still on her back, maneuvered in and out of the shadows to escape. The wolf pups had only been distracted briefly by their brother's injury when they immediately took notice of the fleeing shadow cat and pursed her down the hall.

"Wait! Stop!" Rapunzel followed, hoping the wolf pups don't harm her chameleon friend or her black cat companion.

* * *

Thick hot steam filled the men's private sauna, looking exactly a once was a dungeon, raising the temperature high enough to make even undead monsters sweat. Dracula and his friends, Frank, Wayne, Murray, and Griffin, wore nothing but white towels, (except for Wayne since he only wore a white robe) gave long happy sighs as they settled in for some relaxation time.

"Didn't I tell you guys we'd have fun in here?" Dracula sighed in satisfaction, "Is this not the best?"

Blobby took a piece of his jello-like body and let it steam on a pile of hot rocks.

Wayne panted heavily in enjoyment, licking his muzzle. "Yeah, I'm working up a nice sweat. When's that Rapunzel girl going to be done planning the wedding? She's a great hang."

"Yeah, she's an angel," Frank agreed, "You know it was so nice seeing her laughing and hitting it off with you, Drac."

But Dracula became uncomfortable with this, even annoyed at his friends' mentioning that blonde human, whom he had finally gotten rid of, she was the last person he wanted to talk about. "Who's hitting _what_ off? Please! I could never be with...someone like that naïve little nuisance _._ "

"I'm sorry? 'Naïve? Nuisance _?_ '" Frank questioned clearly shocked Dracula would insult that sweet blonde girl. "You're saying she's not good enough for you, _Your Lordship?_ "

Dracula realized a second too late his unintended insult, clearly she must have gotten popular with his friends and none of them wanted to hear an insult about her.

"No, no, no! Frank, I didn't..." the vampire nervously tried to reassure his golem friend, never intending to insult the blonde girl, but he needed a good excuse and quick, "I meant that I wouldn't be into someone with such blonde hair...uh...even if she had red I would never..."

"Uh...What's wrong with red hair?" Griffin asked resentfully.

"Why are _you_ getting upset?" Dracula asked.

 _"I_ HAVE RED, CURLY HAIR!" Griffin shouted.

"WELL, HOW WAS _I_ SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" Dracula yelled in frustration.

"C'mon, Drac," Murray irrupted in irritation, "You should at least give that babe a chance, she's a nice hot chick. Didn't you see how sexy she was at the pool? Speaking of which..." Murray got a weird smug on his face. "Why were you staring at her funny when she wore Martha's swimsuit?" he asked teasingly as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Dracula could only tense at the sudden question. Even in the hot stream and through thick sweat he blushed. "WHAT?! Where did you get such a ridiculous idea, Murray? There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Rapunzel!" Dracula scoffed in insistence.

"You sure?" Wayne asked with a raised eyebrow, "Because ever since she got here, you've been giving her funny looks, and you looked ready to tear apart the next monster who even looked at her."

"Nothing is going on!" Dracula responded harder. "Martha was the only one for me, the only one I could ever love! Rapunzel means nothing to me, even though she is nice, perky, and even beautiful." Slip of the tongue.

"Oooooohh," his friends whooped.

"Give it a rest, guys," Dracula scoffed with displeasure at his friends' teasing, hoping to drop the subject. "She's the most annoying, loud, naïve, and dumbest girl I have ever met!" He assed in distain.

"Excuse me? DUMB?!" Griffin's glasses clearly showed he was frowning.

Frank decided to speak up. "Rapunzel is your wedding planner for MY wedding, and I think you being selfish and cold-hearted is influencing your judgement. You've been lonely here too long so its time to face the facts! Rapunzel is a good girl, and you should give her a chance!"

The others voiced their agreements. Dracula had hoped after he finally got rid of the human girl, it was the end of that, but his friends weren't letting it go. This conversation wasn't what he had in mind at all when he wanted to relax with his friends.

Hoping to salvage the situation as his friends were growing irritated with him about his view of Rapunzel, Dracula said as reasonably as he could, "Look, settle down, fellas. This is all a mood point. Because Rapunzel, she…she left."

"Wait a minute. She left?" Murray repeated in disbelief.

"Yes!" Dracula claimed as he further fibbed, "Rapunzel realized she never wanted anything to do with me. So, she decided he didn't like me, or any of us." He leaned back casually and crossed his legs as he tried to relax, thinking it was finally the end of the conversation.

But then as if by some weird work of fate, the door threw open and the girl in question tried to calm down a freaking out Salem, but Rapunzel lost her footing and landed right in Dracula's lap, catching him on impulse.

At first Dracula looked very surprised to see her still in his hotel, looking down at her beautiful body in a towel and felt her one hand on his groin and the other on his pale chest. But she had come in here, barged in announced, right in front of his friends, this was very embarrassing. Whatever feeling he had in that moment vanished.

"Um, hi," Rapunzel greeted nervously as Dracula glared dangerously at this continuous human nuisance.

But Frank leaned in closer to them as he announced with suspicion which caused Dracula to worry, "Hmm, I guess Rapunzel had second thoughts."

"Uhh, about what?" Rapunzel asked.

"Dracula said that you...you hated us," Frank explained, hoping this wasn't true.

" _Hate_? I don't hate anybody! I _love_ you guys!"

"Really?" Murray's face brightened up with joy.

"Yes!" Rapunzel nodded, while Dracula had a look of displeasure and annoyance.

"So, you still want to hang out with us?" asked Griffin.

"Sure. I'll hang with you whenever you want."

"You promise?" Frank asked.

"She promises!" Dracula yelled in irritation.

"STOP YELLING AT US!" Frank yelled back at him, loudly, as Rapunzel tightened her embrace around the vampire's neck looking just as scared as he was.

"AND TELL _THEM_ TO STOP CHASING ME!" Salem growled loud enough to get their attention, pointing to the frozen group of wolf pups, staring at the grownups and their dad in towels.


	9. Races and Rescues

Later that morning, Dracula angrily burst open the large doors to the ballroom, before realizing he was still only wearing the towel he wore in the sauna, naked underneath. Using his powers, Dracula quickly changed into his regular clothing and then entered the ballroom like nothing happened. Rapunzel followed after him with a frown, but Dracula realized she too was still in a towel from the spa she left from and, in a flash of indigo mist, he changed her back into her vampire disguise and her hair neatly braided up again.

"I can't believe you stuck around, woman. You don't get it. Bad things are coming your way!" Dracula looked away with an embarrassed face as he tried to clear his head of that awkward moment he had with her in the sauna. "I got to...I got to get my thoughts together." After taking a deep breath, Dracula indicated to all the white clothed tables. "Okay, you see these tables? You can spend the entire day pulling them out and placing them, Wedding Planner!"

"Fantastic! I'm trapped here. It feels like the tower all over again." Rapunzel scowled as she walked up to a table.

As Dracula stood by the other side of the room, he fixed his hair and sighed. Then a loud scratching noise sounded behind him. Rapunzel struggled to push with all her might to place the table in the right spot. Dracula tried to hold in his anger but that noise was getting to him.

"Enough! Enough, stop!" Dracula shouted as he rushed in front of Rapunzel. "Go to a corner, you're in a timeout!"

"Timeout?!" Rapunzel repeated in anger. "I'm almost eighteen! I'm told big for timeouts!"

But Dracula used his powers to throw Rapunzel into a corner and make her suck her thumb as her back was turned to him.

"Okay," announced Dracula as he clapped twice, "Table 57, please move to position 23."

Rapunzel turned her head and her eyes widened when she saw the table next to her have a face and then float away to the spot the Count told it to go. "Whoa! That is amazing."

While Dracula continued to order the tables to fly to their positions, Rapunzel yanked her thumb out of her mouth and ran to the other side of the room. She began counting the tables until she picked one she thought was right.

"36 up, please!" She said as the table's face appeared, looking surprised to see a girl on top, but it followed her orders.

Dracula heard the human girl's excited laughter as he looked up to see Rapunzel riding the floating table in the air. "31 to 19!" he ordered, frowning.

This caused a table to fly into Rapunzel's table and knocking her on top of another table. Dracula smirked triumphantly for his little prank.

Getting back up, Rapunzel glared at Dracula with a challenging smirk. "24 up, please!"

When the table floated up, Rapunzel leaned forward and it flew in the direction she wanted. She flew straight past Dracula, only just avoiding him. The Count stared at the human girl in surprise, but then he smiled deviously.

Floating around the ballroom, Rapunzel looked around for the vampire. "Where did you go?" she muttered.

"Don't freak out, gravity face!" teased Dracula, as he appeared upside down on a table in front of the startled Rapunzel.

"Eat my dust, gray fangs!" Rapunzel teased back, as she flew away.

"56 and 43 to my side!" ordered Dracula, as two more tables appeared at his side and the chase was on.

Rapunzel looked back to see the Count right behind and she laughed. She ducked down a few times to avoid the other floating tables.

"Prepare to cry, Blonde Baby!" Dracula laughed, as he came close enough to her table as he tried to capture her, but the girl was smart enough to escape his open arms and she used the table to grind across the roof.

"That's how we do it, Handsome!" Rapunzel hollered as she laughed.

"Whatever!" Dracula shouted back with a grin.

* * *

Quasimodo and Esmeralda sniffed around at the stone floor, looking for the human that the rat smelled earlier at the pool and back at the lobby.

"Yes, keeping smelling," said the excited hunchback chef. "You catch the human, and then I will make human POTPIE!" he shouted at the end.

They ended up at the door to the ballroom and listened closely when they both heard laughter.

* * *

Both tables continued to fly like crazy around the ballroom, with Rapunzel avoiding Dracula.

"27, 45, 65, 76, 48, block her path!" ordered Dracula. "Block her path!"

Rapunzel gasped when she saw all of the tables create a wall with only slight gaps. "That's not going to stop me!" she shouted as she flew towards the wall and jumped through a gap with a spin, smiling happily. Then she landed on another table.

"Aw, c'mon, baby! Nice!" Dracula shouted, looking impressed.

Using his table, Dracula flew closer to the wall. One of the tables started to pray nothing would go wrong. But Dracula jumped at the last second through a gap with wide eyes and laughing hysterically for the first time in decades. Feeling a strong sense of excitement, Dracula leapt from one table after another laughing joyously and spread his arms wide after doing a little spin in the air. It was then he noticed he was falling but Rapunzel quickly caught him in her arms as she said, "I got you, Drac!"

The table carrying its two passengers flew past the doors and into the hallway. They both continued to laugh as they started pushing each other.

"Do not disturb!" shouted every shrunken head on every door. "People are trying to sleep here!"

A witch maid ducked for cover as the flying table flew over her. Dracula and Rapunzel pulled some towels off their faces the witch maid had carried and just laughed it off, until they noticed their table was heading for a suit of armor. The armor gasped when he saw the oncoming table. Dracula and Rapunzel held each other as they screamed. The armor tried to run but the table came too fast and crashed into the suit of armor.

Dracula was in an odd position on the ground but he had a _very_ large smile on his face, laughing. "Did you see that?" He grabbed the armor's helmet. "Who is that gal, Lady Freaks-a-Lot?" He tossed the helmet away, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh, boy! I have to say...THAT was fun."

The vampire looked down at the table cloth that he assumed his beloved human friend was under. "Okay, the fun you were talking about earlier? Nailed it!" he shouted as he removed the cloth. He then lost his frown because instead of Rapunzel being there, he saw the armor's torso.

"Rapunzel?" Looking around in concern, Dracula saw a bunch of footprints leading down one of the corridors. Instantly knowing who owned those tiny footprints and a feeling of protectiveness growing inside his chest, Dracula growled, "Quasimodo!"

Quick as a wink, he ran down countless hallways in a burst of speed. The sound of his feet sounded almost like a runaway locomotive. If something bad happened to her because of that suspicious chef, Dracula would never forgive himself. Whatever hate he felt for her melted away like ice replaced by love and concern. Unfortunately, he had to stop when he almost collided with Bianca and Sirena.

"Ladies? Why are you still up? The sun is out and you both need your beauty sleep." He slowly walked past them.

"We couldn't sleep. Do you know where Rapunzel is?" asked Bianca.

"Uh, I don't know, she uh..." he stopped when he suddenly realized something. Dracula was then leaning over the two women with narrowed eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh? Uh..." Bianca trembled nervously.

"Nice going," Sirena mumbled.

"But first, excuse me a moment." Dracula ran to the nearest suit of armor and ordered quietly. "Do you have a location on Quasimodo?"

"Yes, sir," replied the armor. "They're heading through the lobby towards the kitchen."

"I need them stopped immediately, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir! We are on it!"

* * *

As the hunchback chef walked through the lobby, carrying a tied up and gagged Rapunzel on his back, the elevator doors opened and a bunch of suits of armor with weapons came charging out into the lobby and towards the surprised chef. Quasimodo tried to make it to the exit when two suits of armor blocked his path.

"What is the meaning of this? Let me pass!" demanded Quasimodo.

"Quasimodo Wilson, you are coming with us!" One of the armors spoke, and reached out to grab the chef, but hunchback kicked him in the nuts. "Ow! Why did that hurt me?"

Quasimodo eluded the entire army of knights, all were now backed up by the gargoyle waiters, giving them the slip. Esmeralda beat up the spiders, all on the side of the knights and gargoyles, as Quasimodo destroyed the beautiful web banner that spelled out 'Congratulations Frank and Eunice.' Pieces of armor were scattered all over the floor whilst a cackling Quasimodo ran off with the terrified damsel in distress.

"Ha, ha! Quasi wins again!" The chef cackled in victory. "When bump with the hump, you land on your rump!"

* * *

"So, how do you know Rapunzel?" Dracula continued to interrogate Sirena and Bianca.

"We told you, since the pool party that _you_ ruined!" scoffed Sirena. "Why are you interrogating us like this?"

"Because I want to know why you are looking for Rapunzel?" growled Dracula.

"We wanted to, uh...make sure she's okay since she became a friend to us at the pool party," replied Bianca. "Look, I don't know what it is your thinking, but whatever it is its not terrible."

"It's not that, it's..." Dracula paused, hesitating. He couldn't risk revealing Rapunzel's human identity.

Just then, one of the suits of armor appeared. "Sir! He made it to the kitchen!"

"He what?!" Dracula shouted in frustration. "What do I pay you for?!" He then looked at the two women. "I'm sorry, ladies. I have to go." he said, as he ran past the suit of armor and disappeared down the corridor.

The suit of armor followed but then came back to tell the women before leaving. "He doesn't pay me."

* * *

"Can you please let me say goodbye to Pascal or my mother one more time? I don't want her to know I didn't mean to leave without her permission, and I want to know if Pascal will be taken care of," Rapunzel pleaded as she was being cooked over the fire, with Quasimodo slowly rotating her.

Suddenly the doors slammed open and there stood a very angry Count Dracula.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula!" greeted Quasimodo.

"Shut your hump hole!" Dracula snarled as he put the fire out with a swish of his cape, knocking the chef down, and untied Rapunzel. He was about to carry her away when Quasimodo blocked their path.

"Now you are helping her? What is it with you and this human?" asked a suspicious Quasimodo.

"She is NOT human, she's a VAMPIRE!" Dracula barked back, making the hunchback shrink back.

"That's right! I'm a vampire!" Rapunzel agreed, pleased that Dracula was here to protect her.

"If she is a monster, let her scare Esmeralda!" challenged Quasimodo, gesturing to the rat on a nearby barrel.

"The mouse? Pfft! Without a doubt." Dracula scoffed with a grin, before giving Rapunzel a look as if to say 'do it.'

"Okay, here we go." Rapunzel crept towards the rat and tried to pull on the same angry, red-eyed, vampire roar she had seen Dracula do before. But the rat wasn't even intimidated and just let out a bored squeak, causing a frightened Rapunzel to stumble backwards and into Dracula's arms.

"A HUMAN!" Quasimodo screamed at the top of his lungs. "A HUMAN!" He yelled again as he proceeded to swing around the kitchen. "Monsieur Dracula has brought a human into the..."

He was then frozen by Dracula to keep him quiet. Once that was done, Dracula took Rapunzel by the hand and left the kitchen together, the doors closing behind them.

"Esmeralda, help me!" muffled Quasimodo.

A gargoyle waiter then entered the kitchen, walked up to Quasimodo, took the hand that was pointing, and turned it around before sticking it inside the chef's nose and then walked away.


	10. Grief and Love

As Dracula and Rapunzel walked down the corridor, she noticed how the Count had become strangely quiet and with a sad look on his face. But in an attempt to cheer him up, Rapunzel decided to thank him for rescuing her.

"Hey, thanks for saving me back there," she said. "That guy's crazy, trying to eat me. I remember my mother telling me about how monsters would try to eat me after stealing my hair..." That didn't sound right. "Uh, I didn't mean you, I meant monsters like that crazy chef."

"There's something I need to show you," Dracula spoke in a very sad voice.

"Oh. Okay, what is it?" asked Rapunzel.

The Count didn't answer her as he entered through a door into a rather dark room, making Rapunzel cough lightly at the thick dust, the only light to be seen were the candles on a candelabra held by Dracula.

"Wow." Rapunzel gasped as she looked around.

The room she had been taken into is Dracula's private chambers judging by how dark and gloomy it was, it somehow fit his tastes as all she could see was his black coffin with giant stone fire basins on both ends like guardians, and above with several draped tapestries and curtains, one of which cover half of a giant portrait where Dracula now stood with the image of a beautiful darkly dressed woman. She was very beautiful with long wavy black hair and pale skin and gleaming sapphire eyes, and she wore a long black dress similar to the one Rapunzel now wore as a costume, with a black choker with a pink jewel. As Rapunzel looked at the woman in the portrait, she realized she had seen that mysterious and lovely lady before, but not in person.

"Wait a second! I know her." Rapunzel came next to Dracula as she said this. "I've seen that picture in a book I once read about the Ruins of Lubov, it's my favorite castle. There's a whole legend around that lady."

"A legend?" Dracula asked, puzzled.

"The Lady Lubov," explained Rapunzel, as she took the candelabra. "The story goes that she met a lonely Count by chance, and they say no two souls were ever more meant for each other. Eventually, they settled down at Castle Lubov after they married. But then, a horrible tragedy happened. A fire started mysteriously one night, and it killed both of them. When I read this story, I could imagine how powerful their love must be. They say it's as if a soul is still trapped in the ruins themselves."

"The legend is wrong," Dracula spoke quietly, his figure silhouetted in pitch black near the giant portrait.

"Huh?" Rapunzel was confused.

"It was only the wife that died." Dracula suddenly pulled the curtain down hard, revealing the rest of the portrait.

Rapunzel's eyes widened as she let out a soft yet surprised gasp. There was Dracula, in the portrait, smiling and lovingly holding hands with the Lady Lubov. Apparently, _he_ was the lonely count in the story.

"And it was no mystery who killed her," Dracula grit his teeth and suddenly his eyes began to glow a cold blue as he snarled, "She was killed by _your_ kind!"

* * *

In a high window of Castle Lubov, two figures could be seen looking out at the angry mob now gathered at the front gates shouting, "Vampire!"

Dracula stood beside his darling Martha, with love and fear. Why the villagers were here, or even why they were attacking them, they understood that it was that witch's doing to set them up for her crimes. They could not stop the fire that spread quickly, and there were too many humans with too many burning torches, so it seemed like there was no chance of escape. But the brave and noble Count had only one option.

"Honey?" Martha looked into the eyes of beloved Dracula, not sure of what to do. "I'm scared."

"Go hide," he said reassuringly as he gently touched her cheek with tenderness, "I'll take care of this."

The two vampires said their 'I love yous' as they shared a kiss before their hands slowly parted, neither knowing it will be the last time they touched and kissed.

"VAMPIRE!" shouted an angry human in the crowd.

Dracula stood at the front door in front of the vicious human villagers, as they started shouting insults at him. But Dracula remained calm as he tried to reason with the mob. Then he heard a high pitched scream of pain. His heart dropped as he feared who made it.

"MARTHA!"

She had fallen to the ground; her left arm seemed to be the last to fall in slow motion to Dracula's eyes. He knew in his heart she was gone. Her killer stood over her body; a woman with long curled black hair and wearing a red dress with long draped sleeves, and a dark hooded cloak covered her body. The woman glared over her shoulder at the Count with an evil smile of triumph on her lips and pure wickedness in her eyes.

 _"She was killed by a witch named Gothel!"_ Dracula spat out the name of his wife's murderer with seething venom. _"That old woman concealed a magic flower to keep herself young. One night she deceived the townspeople and framed my darling Martha and I. She had manipulated the villagers that my wife and I were going to steal their youth to keep us immortal when it was her!"_

With rage in his blood red eyes, Dracula would have attacked and killed Gothel to avenge Martha, but more support beams from the ceiling came down blocking his path and seeing Gothel nowhere in sight, he believed she had perished. In a flash, Dracula burst through the broken glass window, just as the flames engulfed all of Castle Lubov. Safely on a hillside, Dracula could only watch the remains of his beloved home burn away as he suddenly roared his grief and anger over the death of his poor Martha.

 _"THEY_ _are the real monsters...but most of all, Gothel had taken everything from me."_

* * *

Rapunzel swallowed a huge lump in her throat. Stuck in a shock of silence, a chill whispered up her spine. She turned to Dracula and thought: She did that? My own mother! It was his silence that rattled her, a silence that only magnified the drumming of her heartbeat. All she had to do was ensure Dracula never learnt the truth because if she told him her mother is Gothel, he would drain the blood from her body in a matter of seconds. She contemplated the horrors that lingered in his mind. Gothel, her own mother, would kill a vampire for framing them for supposedly stealing the youth of other women. No! That was not true! Her mother had raised and cared for Rapunzel since birth. Her mother would never do that.

"I built this place for my love to protect our friends to make sure they never suffer like I did," Dracula added, walking towards Rapunzel. "As a friend and a protector, you do everything to keep your family safe, even if you have to break their trust. But now, I have feelings for you, Rapunzel."

But Rapunzel wasn't listening. Her mind was drowning in a sea of betrayal and lies, trying to reach the shore of truth.

"Rapunzel?" Dracula waved his hand in her face to bring her back to Earth.

"Huh? I'm sorry. What was that last thing you said?"

"I said, I have feelings for you."

"What?" Rapunzel felt her heart skip a beat. Dracula has feelings for her? Feelings of love, perhaps? She didn't know what to say, except her painted white cheeks turned a shade of pink. She felt this and put her hands on her cheeks. "Am I blushing? I'm sorry!"

"It's alright, you are a good one." Dracula smiled tenderly at her, but then his smiled changed to a sad frown. "If the world was different, maybe it would be possible."

"Are those people still the same as they were back then?" Rapunzel asked, then she looked hopeful. "Do you think people have changed since you have been in hiding for so long?"

"Can you tell me for certain that if we came out in the open everyone would accept us? _Everyone?"_ Dracula questioned, almost desperately.

Staring into the Count's eyes, Rapunzel turned away and looked back up at the portrait of Dracula and Martha. Her face fell in deep sadness as she considered what Dracula had told her. She now knew of the pain he had felt a long time ago. But she could not understand the pain she now felt of whether or not to believe her mother would do something so horrible. This she had decided to keep from the vampire.

"No, you're right." Rapunzel gave the candelabra back to Dracula, turning away with a look of hurt and sadness. "I understand. I'll go for good this time. You can just say my mother came for me or the gremlin lady ate me, or something."

"No, no, no, no." Dracula placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to stop her from going. "I don't want to ruin my friend's wedding. You can sneak out after its all done."

"I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted was to hurt your friends - or you." She was on the verge of breaking into tears.

To make her feel less upset, Dracula smiled comfortingly, "You know, you're not the smoothest monster, but you'd make a great vampire."

Rapunzel's eyes lit up. "Really? Cause I think I kind of got your hypno eyes down."

Dracula rolled his eyes in amusement. "Oh, boy. Here we go. Let me see it."

Rapunzel backed up in the shadows before she emerged into the moonlight, her arm covered half of her face to make her look sinister as she spoke in a Dracula accent, "Beware! For you are in my power. I command you to be the werewolf man!"

Dracula let out a long howl. "I have too many kids." The two friends started laughing, enjoying their fun as Dracula exclaimed, "Someone scratch me, I have fleas!"

"Cause he's a wolf, he'd get those!" Rapunzel laughed.

"Yeah, no, don't explain it. It's not funny when you do that," Dracula chuckled, placing a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder.

Feeling his touch on her shoulder, Rapunzel felt a little warmth in his hand despite the cold. She looked up into his smiling face and the pink color came back into her cheeks.

"So, do you still want to help with the wedding planning? We have a lot of work to get done before the sun goes down." Dracula asked her, hopefully. She didn't answer as she continued to stare at him with those adoring green eyes. "Uh, hello?" He waved a hand in her face and this brought Rapunzel back to reality.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, yes. Yes, I do. And for the record, I like 'Drac' better than 'Vlad,' because if it bothers you since its your dad's name..."

"No, no, no. It's fine. But you'd be the first for me to say thank you."

As he escorted her out of his chambers, Rapunzel stopped for a moment. At first Dracula was concerned, but then Rapunzel stood up on her tip toes and pressed her lips against his soft yet cold cheek.

"That's for saying thank you," she said as she blushed. "You know? For saving me from the ogres?"

Even Dracula felt the color of his pale face turn to a shade of pink. "Your welcome," he squeaked, then covered his mouth in embarrassment over how the tone of his voice changed.

Rapunzel giggled as she found this amusing, and then she said, "By the way, don't forget my birthday is in two days and I have to be out of here in two days to go see the lanterns."

"Yeah...lanterns..." Dracula was in a dazed state until he shook his head in realization and horror. "THE LANTERNS?!"

"I knew you wouldn't forget!" Rapunzel cheered. "Well, we better get back to wedding planning. So, what do we do first?"

"Uhhh...I'll explain back at the ballroom," the vampire trembled nervously, but Rapunzel didn't seem to notice.

"Great! Let's get going!" Rapunzel got a head's start down the corridor.

Dracula had been left standing where he was. He was no longer determined to keep her out of the hotel. He felt fear. Fear of Rapunzel out in the human world where those _real monsters_ would cut her hair for it's magic and use it for themselves. If what her mother had told her was true, Dracula believed Rapunzel was making a big mistake to go out into the world just to see the lanterns on her birthday, only to walk into some dreadful human's clutches and take advantage of her...Dracula shook his head to get rid of that disturbing thought, briefly remembering her run-in with the ogres. Didn't she understood humanity's true colors after sharing his pain with her? Clearly, she didn't understand _all_ of it.

"Hey, Drac!" Her voice startled him as she waved her hand in his face and a look of concern on her face. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine." Dracula waved her worries away with an awkward smile. "Listen, Rapunzel, about the lanterns...wouldn't you like to...see them from the hotel? We could watch them together on the roof."

"That sounds like a nice idea - but I don't think it will work," Rapunzel replied. "I can't watch them from another window again. I need to see them in person. I can't help but feel like they're meant for me because they appear _only_ on my birthday! Now, let's go make a wedding the Steins will never forget!"

After that, Rapunzel began skipping merrily down the corridor humming the wedding march. Dracula could only follow in a slow pace. At the end of the corridor, Rapunzel turned back to look at him with that innocent, cheerful smile, waving for him to hurry up before she disappeared around the corner.

Watching her leave, Dracula suddenly knew why he was feeling such strong feelings towards this girl. If his friends knew it would destroy their trust. He understood it during those moments he had with her. He knew it the second she had kissed him on the cheek. Dracula had fallen in love with Rapunzel, a human.

* * *

"Oh, man. That old bird is going to kill us if she finds out." One of the ogres trembled as his group trudged further into the countryside searching for someone they knew.

"You just let me do the talking," one of the taller ogres announced confidently. "She can't kill all of us if there's too many of us. Besides, if we tell her where that blonde brat ran off to she won't be mad at us, she'll be mad at that blood-sucking beast."

"There she is!" A smaller and shorter ogre pointed out to a figure in a dark hooded cloak.

Following his pointed finger and in his direction, the ogres gave a cry of relief as the entire group charged forward towards the cloaked figure. However, they had lost their footing down the steep hill and tumbled downhill like runaway barrels. The cloaked figure, startled, shielded herself just as the ogres came closer. But their rolling had slowed to halt. Groaning, the ogres stood up one by one to face the hooded figure, who pulled her hood back to reveal none other than Gothel.

"What are you all doing here?!" Gothel demanded, in a mixture of annoyance and surprise.

"Boss, we had to talk to you," said the short ogre.

"You're supposed to be guarding my flower."

"Something happened," a fat ogre spoke up when the others hesitated to tell her, "The girl...she, uh...escaped."

"WHAAAT?!" Gothel screamed, her voice filled with horror and rage. "HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPENDED?!"

"Well, one of our boys wanted to teach her a lesson, twice by screwing her good, but he..." The fat ogre wasn't given a chance to finish because Gothel struck a blow to his cheek bone.

"IDIOT! I didn't ask you to have Rapunzel impregnated by one of your filthy lot! Now, which one of you tried to rape my flower?!"

"He's dead." The taller ogre spoke sadly.

"What?"

"The filthy lot you called for trying to rape the girl is dead. His blood had been drained by a vampire."

"A vampire?" Something about a vampire irked Gothel badly. She felt a tremor in her cold heart. "Was it _him?"_

"Who him?" questioned the taller ogre.

"Count Dracula!" Gothel replied in a harsh tone.

"Yes, it was him!" The shorter ogre reported. "He was the one who helped the girl escape, well, not the first time because she got out on her own with help from some shadow cat that took her into the haunted forest, and the second time we caught up with her we met that blood-sucker."

Gothel's facial expression filled with horror. Her magic, youth-restoring flower had been stolen by that vengeful monster, scalding her by the reminder of her past crime of murdering his wife. But she was determined to find her flower again at all costs.

"Listen up, boys!" Gothel commanded. "We are going back to the haunted forest to find my missing flower and the location of her whereabouts!" Her face twisted darkly with an evil frown, clutching a slender, sharp dagger from beneath her cloak. "And this time, Dracula will not get in my way again."


	11. The Village

The night of the wedding finally arrived, or at least not until midnight.

Dracula got to setting up the ballroom by commanding the floating tables where to be placed, and ordering the zombies or witch maids to set up the silverware. Since Quasimodo remained frozen, the gargoyles proved to be excellent cooks as they prepared the wedding cake along with the buffet. Rapunzel helped Frankie and the boys work on a special song for the wedding party, and she painted a beautiful portrait of the newlyweds. Rapunzel envisioned the wedding eventually falling into place, while at the same time, thought about the lanterns. It was the best of all times. Her birthday was tomorrow and it couldn't have been better. She realized what she was feeling now was hope...hope for the bride and groom, and hope for herself.

While reading her expression, Dracula felt his smile fade. "Rapunzel, maybe seeing these lanterns is not such a good idea."

She felt her own smile fade. "Why?"

"I've heard what people can be like, they'll burn your clothes and beat your toes, and what if they cut your hair?"

"Drac, please, those first two sound ridiculous. I'm sure people aren't like that. Maybe I want to give them a chance, you know. I promised myself I must do this."

Dracula gave her a stern yet sympathetic look. "Trust me, it's a bad idea."

"Well, trust me when I say _this!"_ Rapunzel's voice raised. "It's a good idea, and you can't break your word on this!"

No matter how many times he tried to persuade her, Rapunzel wanted to actually see and walk around those very same people, determined to see those floating lights. But the Count wasn't thrilled by her idea at all. He didn't want to be the one told that a human, or an ogre, had taken away the very girl who captured his heart. Yet, there was an uncomfortable truth that Dracula would have to face at some point: Rapunzel is a human, and should his friends discover her identity he could lose their trust and his sanctuary for monsters will fall. Besides, Rapunzel lived with her mother in a tower somewhere out in the forest. If he tried to visit Rapunzel, her mother would definitely try to kill him on belief he is trying to suck her daughter's blood. Like he said before, if the world was different it would be possible for him and Rapunzel to be together. But with the hatred on both sides of their species, there was nothing he could do about it, unless...

Dracula was on his way to the lobby when he stopped for a moment. He began to think deviously, scratching his chin in deep thought. If she wanted to see for herself that the outside world isn't safe, she would stay in the hotel forever...with him. In the back of his mind, he knew it wasn't right. But who cares? Dracula longed for Rapunzel. He loved her. He _lusted_ for her.

* * *

Meanwhile in her room, Rapunzel had been stuck trying to decide which dress she should wear for the upcoming wedding. Because Dracula had left a large pile of fancy dresses on the bed, Rapunzel was faced with a problem. All of these dresses looked so beautiful in a different style, but whenever she picked one dress the other suited her interest until she picked an even prettier dress.

"That guy is spoiling you," meowed Salem, resting on the drawer close to the mirror. "First, he brushes your hair, he gives you a mountain of gowns, he gives a bouquet of black roses on your dresser, and he leaves you a big bowl of fruit for you to eat!"

"I'm sure he's just being friendly," assured Rapunzel, yet she wanted to keep quiet about Dracula's confession of his feelings earlier, "although I wish he would have picked only a few dresses for me to try on and see if one of them is perfect."

"By the way, I heard you two had a fight about visiting the human village to see the lanterns."

"It wasn't a fight! It was a simple disagreement." Rapunzel sighed. "He wants me to stay so I can watch the lanterns from a _window._ I'm tired of doing that! I told him earlier that he gave me his word. He will help me find the village where the people keep the lanterns, and he is like..." she then did an impersonation of the vampire, "But Rapunzel, darling, it's not safe. Bleh, bleh-bleh."

"It's because he likes you, that's why," explained Salem. "I've seen him like this when Martha was around. He loved her so much, he would do _anything_ to keep her safe." Of course, little did the cat realize her words would prove to be correct.

"Do you really think Drac likes me?" Rapunzel asked hopefully.

"Absolutely!"

"Oh, wow." The thought of being in love with Dracula made the girl's heart flutter. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Earlier tonight I sent his father a letter to invite him to my party. I know he won't make it to the wedding but..."

Immediately, Salem pounced forward on Rapunzel's chest, almost knocking her to the wooden floor. "YOU INVITED HIS FATHER?!" The cat screeched.

"Yes. Is that wrong of me?" Rapunzel didn't understand why the cat was freaking out.

" _Very_ wrong!" Salem hissed. "Didn't Drac tell you about how cold his father is?!"

"Well, he did say he never got along with him," said Rapunzel.

"You're going to be so sorry when Drac finds out you invited his father without his knowledge," Salem growled.

"I thought Drac would want to reconcile with his father after being away from him for so long." Rapunzel collapsed backwards on the bed, causing most of the dresses to fall to the floor. She stared up at the ceiling, nothing but guilt and fear in her eyes should the infamous vampire find out.

* * *

Out in the cold and dark mountains, a huge and ugly bat demon was checking the contents of a mailbox. There was an envelope inside. The bat demon flew back inside the dark and dank cave, and returned loyally to his master's side and handed him the envelope. The bat demon hung upside down from a stalactite near a stone throne where a figure veiled in shadows sat dignified, only his cold blue eyes could be seen glowing. The master, an extremely old vampire, opened it with his long sharp nails and read the letter, it was an invitation to Rapunzel's birthday party.

"Holy rabies!" Vlad smiled with a Romanian accented voice raspier than Dracula's voice, as he leaned out from the shadows to reveal an ancient looking face with pale blue skin, sharp and long features with a long nose and chin, and wisps of silver white hair, "He finally invites me to something." He read the invitation a bit more and quirked an eyebrow at something a bit surprising. "He's got a girlfriend?"

"And he never told you?!" shouted the lead bat crony by Vlad's side, the very one who brought in the letter.

"Easy, Bela," Vlad assured him and added with an interested smile, "At least he's finally considered to continue the Dracula bloodline since Martha died." He read more of the letter and grinned. "It's at a hotel, huh? Fancy-schamcy."

"HOTELS ARE FOR HUMANS!" Bela roared so loudly that he made dozens of other bat cronies to start flying around and shrieking in a frenzy.

"Bela, shut your blood hole!" Vlad angrily scolded the lead crony, "Look what you started. Don't worry, gang! I raised my son to hate, and kill, and steal the souls of humans, like a good boy."

* * *

Back to the hotel, the elevator doors opened as Dracula stepped out to walk gracefully down the hallway with a stern look on his face. As he headed for Rapunzel's bedroom, the shrunken heads hanging on the doorknobs all sensed someone's presence and began shouted, "Do not disturb!" as Dracula continued to walk past them.

"Good morning, Your Eminence," greeted a witch maid, smiling admiringly at her boss.

"Maid, clean up this room!" one of the shrunken heads shouted, which earned a scowl from the witch.

He stopped at Rapunzel's bedroom door in which the shrunken head spoke out, "Oh, it's you. Glad you could make it. She's ranting about how you won't let her go check the world out to see something about floating lights. What you going to do? What you going to say?"

"I got it covered. Just do your job." Dracula reassured the shrunken head, just as he opened the door.

Cracking the door open a bit to stick his head out, Dracula flashed a charming smile as he called for his beloved. "I'm back, Rapunzel, darling." He walked to the center of the room. "Have you made your choice yet?"

Rapunzel emerged from inside the pile of dresses, at first looking shocked to see him, but then droned out, "Not exactly. You gave me too much to choose from."

Dracula only smiled as he helped his beloved out of the dress pile, and he playfully pinched her cheek. "I'm so sorry, darling. I'll help you pick out the right dress. After that, I have so much fun planned for you and me. Whoo-hoo! We can go catch some scorpions. Just the two of us. Yes, darling?"

Rapunzel glanced in Salem's direction, looking very puzzled.

"What did I tell you?" Salem droned. "He likes you."

"Drac, I'm sorry, but can that wait?" Rapunzel backed away from the vampire's smothering affection, her back facing the Count. Her face in a serious expression as much as her voice. "There's something we have to talk about."

Dracula smiled as he answered, "You want to go out into the world to see the lanterns. You can."

"Aha! I knew you were going to say that." Rapunzel shouted as she whirled around. "But, Drac, you promised me that you would help me to..." But she stopped, as she let what the Count said sink in and stared at him in confusion, "Wait, what?"

"Did he just said what I think he said?" Salem asked in equal question.

"I said you can go," Dracula repeated.

Rapunzel, Salem, and Pascal exchanged looks as if is he serious, after all that talk of not going.

"You're just playing a joke on me, right?" Rapunzel figured, crossing her arms, not believing the vampire's words.

Dracula put his hands up as he shook his head. "No, no, no. I'm serious. You're old enough to drive a hearse now, you're old enough to make your own choices. And you're old enough to go out and see the lanterns. You can go."

Rapunzel let all this sink for about a few seconds, until she smiled excitedly, and enthusiastically gave Dracula a quick tight hug. "Oh my God! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

She then rushed into the closet, and came back out seconds later, now sporting a silken red hooded cloak with gold trimming. She picked up Pascal and stuffed him in the cloak's pocket. She zoomed past Dracula and Salem for the door, giggling in delight.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop! Wait a second, Rapunzel." Dracula stopped her in time, using his powers to close the door, as she turned around to face him. "Look, darling, I know you're excited to see the lanterns, but everyone's gone to great lengths to come see Frank get married. You wouldn't want to disappoint him if you missed out on it, would you? And your birthday is not until tomorrow night. Besides, you haven't seen a real human village yourself, right? How do you know if the humans there are friendly?"

The Count sensed a sadness coming from the human girl. Rapunzel had totally forgotten about why this night was so special. Her new friends were about to be wed and she almost skipped it by leaving. But he did prove a point at the end of his words.

"You're right. I almost forgot." Rapunzel slumped on the bed as she sighed. "I know I haven't seen a real village before, but...I've been in that tower for eighteen years. I really want to see new things. Maybe find out why those lanterns only appear on my birthday." She turned to the vampire, her eyes got bigger, and her lower lip quivering.

"Come on. No, no. Don't do that." Dracula pleaded. "Don't give me the pouty face." He couldn't help but admit she did it in the cutest way. Seeing her not giving up her pouty face, Dracula sighed as he pretended to give up. "Okay, there's a human village not too far from here, past the cemetery. How about I take you there and we can be back in like thirty minutes? It should be plenty for your first time. If it all works out, I will take you to the village where the lanterns appear."

"Well...it's not _the_ village where the lanterns are..." Rapunzel started to brighten up at the idea. "But it's still technically out there!" She rushed back to the closet, leaving Dracula to sigh in relief at that moment.

But that caught Salem's attention. "What is he up to?" The black cat eyed the vampire suspiciously.

When Rapunzel came back out, her cloak was gone and she was still in her vampire garb. She gently put Pascal on the drawer, and then walked up to Dracula. To his surprise, Rapunzel gave him a big hug.

"Thank you, Drac. Thanks for helping me with this."

"Of course, my darling," Dracula wrapped his arms around her waist to return the hug with a smile, but then felt a little lower for some odd reason, "I gave you my word."

Just then, the door swung open as Dracula's friends, even Bianca and Sirena, came in, surprising Dracula and Rapunzel.

"Hi, guys!" Rapunzel greeted as the others said their hellos to her. "What are you all doing here?"

"Word has it that you two are smothering each other with love and affection!" teased Sirena.

"What?!" Rapunzel gasped. "I'm not smothering Drac! HE is the one smothering me!" She gestured to pile of dresses and the bowl of fruit.

"I just wanted to make it up to her for getting off a bad start," Dracula explained, although half of this was true. The other half meant he was very much in love with her.

"So, you excited about tonight?" Frank asked with a smile.

"Not as excited as I am right now," Rapunzel grinned excitedly as she told them the good news. "You're not going to believe this, but Drac is going to take me out to see a human village for the first time!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone gasped, arguing with the vampire on what was going on.

Eunice broke through the group walking towards Rapunzel. "Excuse me, Drac. Have you lost it?" She brought Rapunzel in an awkward but sweet hug. "Letting your new girlfriend go out there with those horrible humans you're always telling us about? That's why you built this place." She let go of Rapunzel as she yelled, "They hate us! They're vicious! AND THEY'RE VERY LOUD!"

"And so are you," Sirena mumbled.

"Eunice, maybe they've changed since you've been inside the shadows too long," Rapunzel defended, "Drac and I are just going to drive down the street in a hearse and see how it goes."

"Okay, Honey. Be safe," advised Wanda. "Bring warm clothes and a sword."

"And look our for pitchforks," cautioned Griffin.

"Don't let anybody scoop your brains out either," warned Murray.

"Maybe stay in the shadows," advised Wayne, "It's more fun to observe. From under a house.

"And if any of them pull a knife or a gun at you, or your mother...Oomph!" Sirena elbowed Bianca roughly in the gut to keep her silent.

Frank shook his head as he stepped forward towards Rapunzel and spoke, "Guys, guys. She can handle it. And she's got Dracula to keep an eye on her, for Pete's sake."

"Thank you, Frank." Rapunzel smiled gratefully.

"No problem," replied Frank, but then he whispered at the last part while staring off into space, "But seriously. Watch out for fire. Fire bad."

"Uh, okay." Rapunzel looked a little weirded out by the last warning.

"Let us go, my dear." Dracula announced, holding the door open for her like a gentleman.

Before leaving, Rapunzel turned towards the others and smiled at them. She waved. "Bye, everyone. We'll be back soon." She looked at her chameleon friend. "Pascal, you stay here with Salem and be good."

Pascal saluted in obedience. Salem just yawned and stretched.

Rapunzel followed Dracula down the hallway to the elevator, where it took them down to the main lobby, where Dracula lead her outside through the revolving door, and a hearse stood waiting for them outside. Being the gentleman he is, Dracula opened the door for Rapunzel so she could get in. Then he got in from the other side of the hearse. He started the engine and the hearse was on its way.

"This is going to be so exciting! I'm going to see a real village with real people for the first time! I hope they're as friendly as the monsters." Rapunzel whispered in a giddy voice.

After a some long minutes, the hearse stopped at the graveyards, where the village was just a little way beyond the cemetery.

"Now, are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Dracula asked in mild concern.

"No, I'll be okay." Rapunzel brushed off his concerns like she knew what she was doing, while opening the door and got out of the hearse. "I'll be back soon," she said, and after slamming the door shut, Rapunzel began running enthusiastically through the cemetery to find the village.

But no sooner she had gone a distance, Dracula immediately opened the door and got out, then he transformed into a bat, and started flapping like crazy after Rapunzel. But he did his best to stay unnoticed. "This is amazing!" He heard her squeal as he spotted her silhouette illuminated in the moon's light within the cemetery, and now heading straight towards the village nearby.

Wasting no time, Dracula flew at great speed through the clearing and at last came to small hidden village within the forest. The streetlights illuminated the darkened streets, just as Dracula flew in and transformed back to his original form. The anxious Count looked around to see if the coast was clear or to make sure no one suspicious was nearby. He heard Rapunzel's "Whoo-hoo!" and hid himself in a dark alleyway to avoid being seen.

Rapunzel emerged from the bushes and peered around the mysterious town in excitement. For so long being locked away in the tower, she didn't know how big the outside world was like. And now, she was given her chance to explore it all, even if it was going to be for thirty minutes, she was going to see more of it on her birthday tomorrow. Not wasting any time, she walked further out in the street.

"Uh, hello? Anybody here?" She called out to the deserted town, but there was no answer.

Then she noticed a window display case with two beautiful dresses. She ran over to it and peeked through the glass to admire the dresses.

Suddenly, an angry villager holding a pitchfork appeared in the display case and snarled, "Vampire! Burn clothes!"

Another one appeared with him as he sneered, "Bite toes!"

Rapunzel stepped back, a bit startled, but she presented herself with a friendly greeting, "Oh! Hi, people."

At that moment, the lights in the streetlamps turned off, all Dracula's doing to make the situation more threatening.

Rapunzel tried to convince the two men she meant no harm as she continued, "Uh, my name is Rapunzel and..."

"Vampire!" more angry villagers slinked out from another building, with torches and pitchforks, as one of them growled, "We take your candy!"

The villagers started surrounding the poor blonde girl, as she tried her best to reason with them, "Calm down, please. I'm friendly. And I'm not a vampire."

But the angry townspeople didn't seem to care, as one of the villagers brought up a huge pair of scissors. "Cut her hair! Magic hair!"

Rapunzel gasped, looking horrified, "Cut my hair? No!"

But among those angry faces there was a face Rapunzel recognized clearly.

"MOTHER?" Rapunzel whispered in trembling fear. How could her own mother be a part of these people, all wanting to burn her clothes, bite her toes, take her candy, and worst of all, cut her hair.

One of the townspeople tripped on his own feet and fell to the ground. His head came loose...revealing him to be a zombie, one of the hotel's staff. Dracula saw this and, in a flash and with much stealth, he scooped up the head, screwed it back on, and zoomed out of the chaos again, just as 'Gothel' grabbed Rapunzel's braided hair and guided it to the awaiting scissors.

"Mother, stop!" Rapunzel screamed, pulling her hair out of her 'mother's' grasp, and due to the disguised zombies' loud groans and yells, Dracula couldn't hear a word she said. "Why are you doing this?! Stop this, please!" she pleaded, almost on the verge of tears.

One villager stabbed one of his comrades in his head, shocking Rapunzel instantly and causing Dracula to face palm. The disguised zombie who got stabbed in the face, or mask, fell over and dropped his torch, setting all of the villagers ablaze. The flames caused the 'townspeople' and 'Gothel' to go aflame, creating one big bonfire.

"Oh my God!" Rapunzel shouted in horror at the burning villagers and her mother on fire, not even flinching in pain. "You're on fire! Can I do anything? Mother, can I help you?"

But 'Gothel' nearly shoved a pitchfork in her direction, not even caring she would almost hurt her.

As Rapunzel realized the harsh truth, she said out loud, "Dracula was right."

Dracula, who still hid, was able to hear her words after the yelling ceased a bit and his eyes grew wide.

Rapunzel's face saddened in despair, realizing her dream was thrown away into the flames by the truth, especially the truth about her mother. "Dracula was right about you." She turned and fled back into the dark forest.

A fog of violet mist swirled past the burning 'villagers' and transformed into Dracula as he watched the disappearing form of his beloved. "It worked." He smiled, and sighed in relief. "Now my beloved Rapunzel shall be safe...forever." His plan had worked, though not as originally planned, but he was glad as he saw the girl of his dreams run away, believing that the outside world wasn't safe, and that she would stay in his hotel forever. Hearing the groans of the 'villagers' behind him, Dracula turned and gave a serious frown. "Alright, everybody. Get back to work."

The villagers and Gothel, though still slightly aflame, took off their masks to reveal themselves to be the zombies that worked at the hotel.

Spotting one of the zombies in front of the dress shop and trying to take a mannequin with him, Dracula scolded, "Hey! You don't need a mannequin!" The zombie silently pleaded to the Count, but he was resolved, "Leave the mannequin here! C'mon!" The zombie sulked as he dropped the mannequin.

The zombies began to tear down the village, revealing it all to be hollow and empty, like the set off a movie studio. Once Dracula was assured the work would be done soon, he transformed into a bat and took off, heading back to the hearse to check up on his beautiful Rapunzel.

But as he did so, he failed to notice the silhouette of an ogre, having witnessed the entire episode in the shadows, and left to report to his mistress. Gothel, having told of what had happened, was both pleased and furious. Pleased that her flower had been found, but furious that her vampire enemy had set Rapunzel up with a plan to scare her into remaining at his hideout and to show her the true colors of the woman who reared her as her own.

"That Dracula is a fool! He thinks he can take away with is precious to me through trickery!" she snarled.

"Uh, isn't that what _you_ did with Rapunzel?" questioned the shorter ogre.

"SHUT UP!" Gothel snapped, causing the ogres to draw back in fear.

The taller ogre pointed in the direction the slightly burning zombies were heading to. A hidden underground tunnel opened up within the ground and the zombies slowly trekked downhill and into the tunnel. However, one of the zombies wandered off and came face-to-face with Gothel and the ogres. At first, the ogres looked alarmed, but the zombie looked at Gothel up and down, and grinned.

"Hoooot Laaaadyyyy..." the zombie groaned with intrigue.

"Oh, stop it, you big lug." Gothel chuckled humorously, until she withdrew the dagger from her cloak and pointed it directly at the zombie's face in a threatening manner. "Where does that tunnel lead out?"

"Knife..." the zombie groaned again, this time in fear.

* * *

Dracula opened the hearse door and found Rapunzel, looking rather scared and distraught sitting in the car seat. "Rapunzel, darling..." he asked as he sat beside her, "How did it go? How was the village?"

But the only answer he was given was this. "Take me back to the hotel."

Dracula smiled in secret. It was what he wanted to hear. As he drove the hearse back to the hotel, rather quickly, Rapunzel stayed silent and sullen throughout the ride. Dracula glanced in her direction, wanting to say something, but he caught a glimpse of a tear on her cheek. The joy he felt for the success of his plan had faded into concern he felt for his sweetheart.

"Rapunzel...?" He reached out a hand to touch her own, to try and comfort her.

Rapunzel could no longer keep silent. "Drac, you were right! The people are awful! They were everything you said! They wanted to bite my toes, burn my clothes, take my candy, and tried to cut my hair - with scissors!"

"WHAT?!" Dracula feigned shock as he rubbed one of his arms. "Look at me, I'm so scared _I'm_ getting goosebumps!" As he watched her gaze out the window, Dracula added, "I am so sorry you had to see all that."

Rapunzel wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm so sorry I doubted you," she sniffled, "I'll never leave the hotel, or so much the tower, ever again."

That last part made Dracula smile a little, secretly. "O-Okay, okay."

By the time they returned to the hotel, Dracula escorted the dismal Rapunzel to her room, but he decided to cheer her up a little. "Look, don't be sad. Tonight is Frankie's wedding. And tomorrow night, I'm going to give you the bestest birthday ever! As for the lanterns, we can watch them from the roof. Just the two of us."

"That sounds fine," Rapunzel ceased her sniffles and looked up at him with sad eyes.

"Now, you need to get dressed for the wedding, my darling," he continued in an overly sweet voice, "I have to make sure if everything is ready, but I'll be back to check up on you." He then walked toward the door, still smirking. "If your already done before I get here, you come down whenever you're ready, darling."

The Count blew a kiss in her direction, surprising Rapunzel yet causing her to blush. Dracula exited the room, and slowly closed the door behind him. Once that was done, he sighed in relief, knowing full well his plan had worked.

"Oooh. What did you do?" The shrunken head on the doorknob became suspicious of the Count's behavior.

"What I _had_ to." Dracula's mood changed as he went all serious and final. The shrunken head scoffed in skepticism. But the Count reassured her, "She'll thank me one day."

"Yeah, right!" the shrunken head huffed, "That's what the guy who shrank my head said."

"What exactly did you _do_ to make you say you _had_ to do it?" asked a familiar voice as Dracula looked down to see a suspicious Salem and a scowling Pascal.

"None of your business!" Dracula used his powers to throw both the cat and the chameleon into a vase, and then he tied up and gagged the shrunken head to keep her quiet. Then he walked casually down the hall acting like nothing was wrong, and ignoring the muffled groans of the shrunken head.


	12. The Wedding

At last, it was time for the wedding.

The lobby and the ballroom had been decorated in mostly white with soft pink lighting, while outside at the pool an altar had been set up where the marriage could take place under a clear starry night and a long white carpet had been rolled out from the altar to the end of the two rows of chairs.

The entire hotel became alive with frenzy as monsters everywhere started getting ready for the big wedding. Frank had a hard time struggling to fit into his tuxedo and split the backside of his pants open. Dracula face palmed and summoned for a witch maid to sew it up quick as a wink. Eunice got her head tangled up in the veil and her head fell off. Luckily, Wanda and Sirena were there to help screw her head back on and untangle her from the veil.

After ten minutes, Rapunzel finally made her choice of what to wear, with Salem getting tired of waiting due to Rapunzel's depression the girl only cared less. She picked out a sleeveless red dress. Making sure her hair is still braided and her vampire make-up still on, and after putting on her dark shoes, and a golden chain necklace with a bat dangling at the end around her neck, Rapunzel was ready.

At the photo tableau, everyone gathered to take pictures together. First, Frank the groom with Dracula as his best man, Wayne, Murray, and Griffin as groomsmen. Then, Eunice the bride with Rapunzel (who forced a crooked smile) as her maid of honor, Wanda, Sirena, and Bianca as bridesmaids. The last photo of the entire family, Frank and Eunice with Rapunzel and the Drac Pack. Except Dracula didn't show up in the photos because he's a vampire.

Dozens of bats held up white sparkling curtains for the ceremony, and a white carpet going went from the end of the rows of chairs to the altar. The monsters had taken their seats and the wedding got started.

Down the aisle first came Dracula with Rapunzel on his arm. As the Count gazed down at this lovely blonde beauty at his side, he smiled as he imagined Rapunzel in her own wedding gown if they get married someday. The thought of Rapunzel as his wife made Dracula's heart flutter. But, her mother would never approve of the marriage and neither would his friends. If the world was different, then it would be possible. Then he noticed how quietly somber she looked. Worried, the vampire gently tugged her arm to get her attention. Rapunzel looked up at him and forced a weak smile. Dracula smiled back.

The bridesmaids, Wanda and Sirena and Bianca, went down the aisle first wearing their dark pink satin dresses along with the groomsmen, Wayne and Murray and Griffin, in their splendid tuxedos. Winnie cam skipping along the carpet tossing black rose petals. And then, Eunice walked down the aisle in her lovely white gown as the traditional wedding march played on the pipe organ.

Frank smiled as she approached his side at the alter. "You look beautiful, honey," he whispers.

"Thanks, you look handsome," Eunice replied feeling flustered.

The monster minister cleared his throat, "Dearly beloved and departed, we are gathered here today to witness the marriage between these two golem monsters. May I have the rings, please?"

Dracula gave the rings to Frank as he nodded his thanks.

"Frankenstein, do you take this woman to be your wife, to have and to hold, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, from this day foreword, for as you both shall live?" the minister asked.

"I do."

"Eunice, do you take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, from this day foreword, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

The couple placed their rings on just as the minister announced, "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce this couple husband and wife, you may kiss the bride."

Frank and Eunice shared their first kiss as husband and wife. The whole room filled with applause, cheering, and even a few manly tears were shed from Dracula and the groomsmen, for the happy couple. The only person who didn't cheer was Rapunzel. She tried to look happy for the couple as a stream of tears left her eyes. But these were not tears of joy. These were tears of sadness and envy. Here, the Steins received the most magical night of their lives, while Rapunzel herself received the most horrible night of her life.

The Steins walked down the aisle and entered the ballroom where the reception was being held. There was a whole buffet of of food with the gargoyle waiters waiting patiently. First off, Eunice tossed her bouquet to a group of single women, which included Bianca and Sirena, but as though by the working hand of fate, the bouquet landed in Rapunzel's unexpected hands.

"Oh, my goodness!" Rapunzel gasped in surprise, and then looked to Dracula as to what if means.

"It means you will be the next one getting married," Dracula chuckled.

"Um, who will I be getting married to? Don't I need to fall in love with the right guy first?"

Once again, Dracula chuckled rather amusingly. "Silly Rapunzel." Then he leaned forward as he spoke in a soothing, seductive voice. "I believe the right guy you're looking for is standing right..."

"Hey, guys! It's time for the cake!" Murray called.

Rapunzel and Dracula took their seats at the long table with their friends. Right after Frank and Eunice cut the first slice of cake, the cake slice had been given to Rapunzel first, much to her surprise. It was a huge six layered cake, enough for anyone who wanted a slice. The zombies each carried a platter with about four to five pieces of cake and served them out to hungry guests.

Dracula gently tapped his glass with his fork to get everyone's attention. "A toast to the Steins! I just want to say how happy I am for the both of you and I wish you two many years of happiness."

"Thanks, Drac," Frank said, and he gave Dracula a big brotherly hug to show it.

"So, Rapunzel, how did it go?" Wanda asked Rapunzel, the two of them along with Sirena and Bianca, were walking to the dance floor to the loud, blasting, rock music Frank and the boys played. "Dracula took you to the village outside the cemetery. I don't know why you took so long, it's just we didn't know where you were. We thought you were still out."

"Oh no, I don't know why I ever wanted to leave, the people were so boring," Rapunzel slightly lied so not to scare her friends as she shrugged.

"But...I thought you wanted to go out there to see the floating lights. That was your dream." Sirena gaped at her friend in confusion.

"Uh...well...I made up my mind to stay and watch the lights...from my window." Rapunzel looked away with dismal eyes.

"I thought you said you grew tired of watching by the window!" argued Sirena. "Why throw away your dream when you've got your chance to make it happen! Whatever happened to that dreamy, perky girl who wants to go out and see the floating lights?"

"SHE'S GONE!" Rapunzel nearly yelled, her eyes ablaze with anger and sadness. "I never want to leave this place as I long as I live. I don't want my hair cut or pitchforks shoved in my face! If you want to see the floating lights, why don't you go?" Tears betrayed her emotions as she almost choked up.

Bianca and Wanda had drew back, frightened by the girl's outburst, but were now concerned when they noticed Rapunzel's tears.

Sirena shook her head and scoffed, "Since when did you have an attitude, Miss Crybaby? Besides, you can't stay here because..." She dared not say it in front of Wanda because who knows what will happen if Rapunzel's human identity was out.

Emotionally hurt by these words, Rapunzel turned and left the dance floor. "I think I'll go sit down for a while."

"What?" was all Sirena could say as Bianca and Wanda shook their heads in disappointment at her.

As Rapunzel took her seat, Dracula was at her side in a flash. "May I have this dance?" he asked as he extended his hand out to her.

"No, thank you." Rapunzel pushed his extended hand away, without even looking at him.

Taken aback by her rejections, Dracula sat beside her. "Darling, are you alright? What's wrong?"

Rapunzel turned to face him, and he could see the stream of tears on her face. "Everyone is so happy here. The Steins will live their dream as a happy couple, but I feel like I'm being mocked at because I can never live my dream to see the lanterns." She wiped away the tears but more tears kept coming. "You were right, Dracula. People hate us."

"Oh, darling. There are so many things you can do other than see these lanterns, yet you're so young to..." Dracula was at a total loss for how to comfort his human sweetheart, guilty for what he had done. But he had to do it to protect her. He wanted her to understand how dangerous the world is. But he had never seen her in so morose a state, she wasn't even trying to be happy nor did she feel like celebrating.

"Can I be excused to my room?" Rapunzel stood up. "I don't think I'm welcome here, nor will I ever be if they knew who I am." She started to walk away sullenly out of the ballroom.

"No, wait!" Dracula stopped his beloved, taking hold of her arm, gently. "Please, stay here for a little longer. I want you to dance with me."

"Drac, I..." Rapunzel didn't have time to finish because there came an announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemonsters," Murray spoke through the microphone, "it's time for the bride and groom's first dance together. Everyone else can join in too, so grab your partner and let's make this night magical."

In the center of the dance floor, Frank took Eunice by the hand and lead her into a slow, romantic waltz. Other couples joined them afterward.

"Rapunzel, may I have this dance?" Dracula extended his hand out to her.

Rapunzel could see it in his eyes that he was pleading for her to accept the offer, almost desperate. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she placed her hand into his.

In an instant, Dracula gracefully lead Rapunzel on the dance floor, gradually leading her to the wall, which she was confused about. But a violet mist drifted around her gown to help her dance up the wall and even onto the ceiling near the crystal chandelier. The two swayed slowly together, gazing into each other's eyes.

 ** _Because I love her, I need her_**  
 ** _Like Earth needs the sun_**  
 ** _I need the one I love_**  
 ** _To keep my hope bright_**  
 ** _My head right_**  
 ** _My heart fighting on_**  
 ** _Until I am back in her arms_**

 ** _Because I love her, I need her_**  
 ** _Like summer needs rain_**  
 ** _To grow and sustain each day_**  
 ** _I hear her singing_**  
 ** _And bringing her strength to my soul_**  
 ** _Until I am back in her arms_**

 ** _We're miles apart_**  
 ** _Yet still my heart_**  
 ** _Can hear her melody_**  
 ** _I'm more that sure_**  
 ** _That I can't endure_**  
 ** _Without her love for me_**

 ** _Because I love her and need her_**  
 ** _Like I need to breathe_**  
 ** _Did Adam need Eve like this_**  
 ** _Now I see clearly_**  
 ** _I nearly gave up all I had_**  
 ** _So whatever our differences were_**  
 ** _I'll bid them goodbye_**  
 ** _I'll give love a try_**  
 ** _And all because I love her_ **

Then time seemed to slow down between them as Dracula stopped dancing with Rapunzel, and smiled at her. For the first time throughout the party, Rapunzel started to smile for real again. Their eyes locked as he gave her a love struck gaze and Rapunzel stared in awe into his eyes.

Dracula steadily leaned in closer, and closer to the blonde girl. Rapunzel wanted to let go and back away, but she worried she might fall off the ceiling if she did. She tried to pull away, but the vampire's strong grip kept her from leaving. This time, nothing or no one would ruin what he wanted from her for so long.

"Uh, Drac? I'm really scared right now," she mumbled.

"Maybe that's a good thing," he insisted seductively as he closed his eyes and began to close the gap between them.

"What are you doing?" Rapunzel asked, flustered.

"Kiss me," Dracula whispered in a soothing voice.

Rapunzel shut her eyes and waited for it to happen. Suddenly she felt a pair of cold lips pressing against her own. Rapunzel's eyes shot open and found herself locked in Count Dracula's kiss. Her shock evaporated as she slowly embraced him and returned the kiss. Feeling as though eyes were on him and his private moment, Dracula immediately sprinted him and his beloved down the wall to a private corner in the ballroom.

He kissed her passionately as she moaned into his mouth and took his chance to thrust his tongue his tongue into her mouth. The two let their tongues duel in a battle one another for dominance. Rapunzel felt Dracula pin her body to the wall and gasped mildly when she felt a gasping Dracula grinding his forming erection into her crotch. After four minutes, the two stopped kissing, a trail of saliva connecting them after their lips parted, and it left them breathless.

Looking at her in his arms, the things he wanted from her so badly, so desperately, he knew his chance had finally come as he panted, "Let's go to your room."


	13. Desires and Dreams

Dracula whisked Rapunzel and himself back to her room in such a flash, she was momentarily surprised and breathless to find why they were in her room so suddenly. What she didn't hear was the click of the door as Dracula locked it so no one will disturb them.

"That was an amazing kiss, my first one ever. But weren't you having fun at the party?" Rapunzel asked, slightly concerned.

"Yes," Dracula replied with desire, "But there's something I need to tell you, something I need to show you, Rapunzel."

"Really, what?" she asked with curiosity, and noticed he looked incredibly nervous but at the same time eager and desperate.

"Rapunzel, I...I love you." Dracula confessed quickly before he could hesitate anymore.

Rapunzel gaped in shock at what she just heard, surprised and flattered all at once, even forgetting about her terrible experience in the village earlier.

"Oh, Drac," she sighed lovingly, "That's wonderful, because I thought you hated me, and it confused me so much because I...well, how you first treated me and tried to get rid of me and everything, but...Oh, forget it, I love you, too, Drac."

This surprised Dracula, but his heart leapt for joy as he romantically embraced and kissed her passionately again. "Oh, Rapunzel, I do love you. I love you so much."

"But I want to ask you something, why did you take us to my room?" Rapunzel asked, now confused.

"Because I vant to show you how much I love you," Dracula responded in a soothing seductive voice colored with desperation, making his accent thicken, "I vant to make love to you, my beautiful Rapunzel."

Rapunzel lost her smile as she realized what this meant. It scared her so much that she pushed herself out of his embrace and backed away from him. "What?! No! You want to take advantage of me like those horrible ogres?! I was almost r-a-p-e-d by them twice, and now you're trying to do the same thing? You just said you love me, and I thought we were friends finally!"

His expression soften at her words remembering that horrible incident back at the woods, but the vampire longed to have her warm caring embrace into his own. When the Count cast a brief glance down at his pants, his bulge grew with each moment, just the thought of them making love made him so excited, and hard.

"Uh, Drac?" Rapunzel fearfully pointed at his bulge.

Dracula looked down at his erection and blushed before chuckling nervously, then gently took her by the shoulders as he spoke reassuringly, "My darling Rapunzel, what I want is different, it's deeper, more intimate, and I do CRAVE you, deeply. Those ogres are only weak minded idiots that only cared about getting their way with you, and satisfying their brutish needs with only pleasures of the sex, and they would do it with any beautiful girl, human or monster. I only want to give all of me to you, not just my heart now, which you've always had since we first met, but now I want to give you my body."

Rapunzel began to tremble with fear as she replied timidly, "But Mother told me..."

Dracula placed a long finger on her soft lips as he whispered tenderly, "Shhh, it doesn't now, only that we're together now matters."

He gently held her face and tilted her head up to focus her gaze into his own. He activated his hypnotic powers and just like that, her mind was like putty in his hands. Dracula was _enthralling_ Rapunzel to his physical lust.

"Look into my eyes, Rapunzel, and feel what I feel now." He ordered in a soothing hypnotic tone.

Rapunzel became mesmerized as her fear was suddenly replaced with a wonderful desire and hormonal urges, and it strangely calmed her as she felt what Dracula felt for her, and desired from her.

She closed her eyes just as he brought his mouth to her lips, and kissed her with intense passion. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer and relishing in the touch of his slightly cold lips moving fiercely against her own warmer lips. Rapunzel titled her head upward to allow Dracula to slip his tongue into her mouth, twining it with her tongue in a romantic, passionate dance.

As they continued to kiss and explore each other with their hungry mouths, Dracula used his powers to telekinetically unbraid her hair allowing it to pool around her feet, then he reached around her back unzipping her dress. It slid off her body, and she was left in her underwear. He eagerly undid the binds that imprisoned her body, hooking his thumbs in the top of the underwear and pulled it down off her body letting it drop to the floor.

Rapunzel undid his tie and helped him out of his jacket, along with his shirt underneath. She took a moment to take in the view of his masculine chest and began exploring his chest as they continued kissing. She slid her hand down to his pants and unbuttoned it, and they fell to the floor. Dracula smiled as he began to pull down his underpants, letting his massive dick spring free.

Rapunzel felt an overwhelming wave of nerves come over her. Dracula stood before her smirking, eyeing her perfect form, his blue eyes glued to her as he lifted her onto the bed, gently laying his beautifully Rapunzel on the soft mattress. Her head rested on the pillow and he was on top of her. He grazed his mouth over her breasts sucking her buds like crazy and this made her crotch heat up in wet pleasure.

Dracula positioned himself over her, his erection over her entrance and he smiled in pure lust. Finally, he and Rapunzel would have the relationship he always wanted. "Are you ready, my love?" he asked.

"Yes," Rapunzel nodded. "I'm ready."

And with that, Dracula slowly dipped in, his hardened cock entered her awaiting heat. Rapunzel moaned in pain. Her body felt as if she was given an electrical shock. Her crotch started to bleed slightly for her virginity had been taken away.

A strange yet seductive sparkle came to his sapphire blue eyes, and it reflected in her bright emerald eyes. After that, Dracula began pushing in slowly, thrusting in out of her as he thought he was hurting her.

But Rapunzel gave a pleading look urging him to continue, and he began to pick up the pace. She clawed her fingers into his smooth masculine back to hold on tight and her legs encircled his butt, guiding and commanding him to go deeper within her.

Dracula kept pushing, gradually becoming faster and going into her further. It felt so wonderful as Rapunzel felt like she was a bird soaring through the nighttime sky as he began to thrust even harder.

His exhilarating and quickening pace began to shake the bed, made the bed springs creak loudly, while their heavy breathing and pleasured grunts and moans filled the room with their erotic desires as they began an open mouthed kiss and danced their tongues out in the open more and more.

Rapunzel's body began to ache from Dracula's strong thrusts, but she didn't want it to stop, but she felt something big and wonderful was coming.

"Oh, goodness! Oh Dracula, oh yes!" she cried through heavy gasping, "It feels sooo good! Ohhh!"

"Ohh, Rapunzel!" he groaned, "You're so beautiful, the best is yet to come!"

Dracula pushed into her again, getting closer to their peak, thrusting hasher and faster now, causing Rapunzel to cry out in sheer bliss.

"OHH! Wh-what's happening to me?! Ohh, I-I feel like something's gonna explode inside me!"

"It's called a climax!" Dracula grunted through heavy breathing, "Your first orgasm! Prepare to cry, Miss Glowing Hair!"

At last, with a few more mighty thrusts, Dracula pushed in the farthest he could, reaching the climax, before he powerfully ejaculated Rapunzel, lining her entrance with his hot and sticky white discharge, and they screamed each other's names simultaneously with intense passion.

"DRACULAAHHH!"

"RRRAPUNZELLL!"

The two lovers breathed heavily from exhaustion and pure happiness as the wave of their climax slowly wore off. He collapsed on top of her to rest the crook of his neck in hers. She looked up at him with a warm, loving smile and gave him a quick peck on the lips. He slowly pulled out of her and laid next to her as they continued to pant and smile at each other.

"How are you feeling?" he asked tenderly.

"I feel great," she sighed into his neck, "That was incredible, I've never felt anything like this before."

"I felt the same way with Martha," he replied but then he looked worried. "I hope nobody heard us."

"I don't think so," Rapunzel shrugged, "With the music so loud downstairs, no one would have heard us."

But she was proven wrong while in other parts of the hotel, in their rooms, Dracula's friends and Rapunzel's two friends lay awake in their beds with awkward looks on their faces, staring blankly up at the ceiling at the orgasmic screaming they recently heard. In their Honeymoon Suit, Frank and Eunice could only lay in bed with wide eyed looks.

"Oh, wow." Frank muttered, and Eunice shot him a hard look.

Back in Rapunzel's room, she and Dracula climbed underneath the blanket to settle themselves in. Rapunzel moved closer to the Count, resting her hand on his stomach. Dracula laid his hand on waist to pull her closer to his body so he feel the warmth of her body against his.

"We need rest," Dracula told her, "I have something special planned for your birthday tomorrow night."

"Oh, Drac, thank you so much," she responded with a blissful smile, "I look forward to it, though I don't see how anything could be better than this. Good day, Drac, sleep well."

"Sleep well, my beloved," he whispered tenderly.

He brought her even closer and they snuggled up together as they fell asleep in each other's arms for the day.

* * *

Dracula found himself in a strangely familiar place, and once again he was dressed in his normal gentleman's tux and opera cape. He looked around the room and recognized it as a room in his old home of Castle Lubov, where he once lived with his beloved Martha.

"Hello, Honey," said a familiar female voice, making Dracula whirl around to see Martha standing before him.

"Martha!" he cried with a jovial smile as he rushed forward to embrace her, "My darling Honeybat, I've missed you so much."

"I know," she replied, but there was an undertone of cold disappointment that made Dracula freeze in his tracks, "But I'm very disappointed in you."

"What? Why?" he asked perplexed.

Martha's once gentle blue eyes became icy cold as her fair brow furrowed tightly and she responded bluntly, "You tricked that poor girl, emotionally scaring her for life, crushing her dreams, and taking advantage of her."

Dracula's face fell as he felt his heart break, and he pleaded to his wife, "Do you mean I've betrayed you? I'm sorry, my love, I didn't mean to fall in love with a human. I kept my promise for the longest time, but Rapunzel just suddenly appeared and, well, it just happened."

"You haven't betrayed me, darling," Martha tried to reassure him, "I'm happy you found someone to love again, and can even make you happy. I'm disappointed, even disgusted with how you could be so selfish about it, tricking poor Rapunzel with that fake village and going back on your promised to take her to see the lanterns that have been her life long dream. It's as if your imprisoning her again, when she's spent her entire life imprisoned in a tower."

"I had to do it!" He nearly yelled defensively. "Her mother told her about how the human world is dangerous, especially with that Gothel harlot out there, and especially after that harlot killed you. I had to prove it to her, to keep her safe. I can't even bare the thought of losing someone else I love to greedy and murderous humans!"

But Martha shook her head at him shamefully as she lectured him, "The man I loved, the man I married would never have crossed the line, have done such a cowardly thing. He was brave and confronted his problems head on, and you know not all humans hate us, such as the king who lost his own child years ago, and he offered you his help. If you really care about her, tell her the truth about what you have done. If not, then like the gentleman I know you are, you will keep your promise and take her to see the lanterns."

"But, Martha..." he pleaded, falling to his knees.

"Keep your promise, Vladimir Dracula!" She scolded him as her voice echoed off and she faded away like a memory on the wind.

* * *

And that was when Dracula sat up straight yelling "Martha!" as he breathed heavily in a cold sweat. He looked at the still sleeping Rapunzel by his side as he thought about his dream, a pang of guilt and regret stung him from the inside.

He knew it was his guilty conscience gnawing at him, yet somehow he knew even the real Martha would be right about him and what he had done. Dracula loved Rapunzel so much, but he couldn't stand the thought of Martha hating him for what he had done, even if he did it with the best of intentions and only wanted to protect and keep Rapunzel safe.

Dracula quietly laid back down in the bed, trying to get more sleep as he reluctantly and guiltily decided to keep his promise to Rapunzel, and take her to see the floating lanterns in the nearby human kingdom of Corona tomorrow for her birthday.


	14. Happy Birthday, Rapunzel

Dracula awoke with a yell as the skull phone next to the bed started screaming loudly, causing him to hit his head in pure irritation and grumpiness at having to wake up so early.

"OW!" the skull cried as Dracula slammed his receiver down hard to make it stop screaming, "Hey, you set me to go off at this time, Boss, I'm just doing my job."

"Whatever, bone head," Dracula moaned as he tried to go back to sleep, but then he shot up with a start when he suddenly remembered what time it was and what he was supposed to do, he gasped loudly, "Holy Rabies, we're going to be late!"

Rapunzel awoke at the sound of the alarm and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she moaned sleepily, "Drac, what time is it? What are we late for?"

He looked down at his new sweetheart with a nervous smile as he said, "Uh, eh, Rapunzel my Honeybat, it's your birthday, and I want you to have the bestest, specialest birthday ever, so uh, I uh... can't tell you because, erm, it's a surprise, and I won't spoil your surprise birthday present."

Grinning hugely, Rapunzel remembered what day it was and embraced her lover as she gushed excitedly, "Oh, Drac, I can't wait to see it! The other day was the greatest of my life, and now you have another surprise for me."

She quickly got out of bed and started to get dressed, but Dracula told her to put on her normal pink dress instead of her disguise so she agreed. While Dracula smiled about the surprise he planned for her, his heart ached with guilt behind it as he remembered his deception. He tried to push it away as he remembered why he had to do it. Now he can redeem himself for it by keeping his word and taking her to see what she had dreamed of her whole life.

A few minutes later, Rapunzel was back in her old pink and purple dress, which made her wonder why the Count wanted her to wear her old garb instead of her vampire disguise, until he told her to wear her cloak to cover her true human form.

Dracula quickly redressed and he even redid Rapunzel's long, long golden hair in it's original elegant and intricately ornate braid. Rapunzel thanked him, and then decorated her hair with dozens of beautiful kinds of flowers (Dracula had picked them out for her the other night). As she twirled around looking herself over in the mirror, Dracula's heart soared at his first sight of her appearance.

Quick as a wink, he took her out to the driveway where an old hearse waited for them with the pumpkin headed Headless Driver waited for them, although Dracula told the driver he intended to drive Rapunzel himself.

"Before we go," Dracula then told his human sweetheart, "I need you to wear this."

He held up a black blindfold for her, but she only looked at it with confusion as he smiled wily at her.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously as her own wily smile grew.

"It's part of the surprise present for you, and I want to make sure nothing ruins it," he answered with a mischievous smile.

Rapunzel caved in with a sighing laugh as she finally allowed him to put the blindfold over her eyes. Dracula then guided her into the hearse and quietly drove the hearse out of the hotel driveway at crazy speed like the metaphorical bat out of heck.

Dracula and Rapunzel were buckled in nice and tight but still she bounced around and about beside him as it raced through the rugged terrain and dirt roads of the dark forest before it finally smoothed out as the forest disappeared and the trees opened to clearer mountains and views of valleys, since Dracula had memorized instructions secretly earlier that morning to get to the village.

Yet Dracula was unaware the forest was not completely devoid of things other than it's hidden creatures, for as the hearse sped through the forest a party of searches sojourned through the forest in search of the woman's beloved 'flower' and as though in slow motion saw the hearse rapidly approach, forcing herself and her ogre posse to leap out of the way to keep from being hit, and through the hearse's driver's window was her hated enemy, and worst of all sitting next to him was a blindfolded Rapunzel.

As Gothel watched the hearse disappear through the forest, her face twisted with a hateful seething sneer as she felt the smooth and cold metal of her dagger in her hand, hidden in her dress. No sooner the hearse had gone, Gothel lead the ogre posse across the bridge to the monster-inhabited hotel. As soon as they reached the revolving door, Gothel halted. She will easily be recognized as a human and will surely be killed. An idea came to her as she ordered one of the ogres to check and make sure if no one was inside the lobby yet.

The ogre slipped inside the revolving door and poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear. Looking around the lobby, the ogre could see no one and signaled with a hand gesture, "All clear!"

The ogre posse squeezed through the revolving and collapsed on top of each other when they made it out. Rolling her eyes, Gothel scanned her eyes for what she needed to disguise her human appearance until... Bingo! A storage closet. Going inside, she told the ogres to wait outside for her.

A few minutes later Gothel emerged in a witch's garb; her face and hands had been painted green, a long plastic nose attached to her nose, her costume a black dress with a maid's apron, and a witch's hat upon her head. But the second she came out of the closet her eyes widened to find not a single ogre waiting outside for her. Her eye twitched and a snarl of frustration escaped from her lips.

* * *

Gothel made her way further down the seemingly endless halls of the castle, not really knowing where she was going or what she was looking for, only that Dracula had kept her precious flower somewhere in this castle for his own sick purposes. Maybe she'd find an advantage by getting to know even a small portion of the castle's interior layout.

She suddenly heard the ding of a descending elevator and quickly hid again to the side of another hallway in the alcove with another weird and frightening potted plant was. A witch in a maid's apron exited the elevator pushing a cart full of towels and sheets down the right side of the hallway.

As she waited for the witch maid to leave, Gothel followed the witch maid at a distance, hoping she would at least lead her to Dracula's hidden chambers or some kind of private layer where her flower had been kept. The witch then seemed to freeze, and Gothel nearly panicked, but then went through some large wooden doors to hide the second the witch turned around to see if she was being followed. Seeing no one behind her the witch maid shrugged it off and continued on her way.

Gothel sighed in relief at not being seen as she grasped her chest, but her relief turned to surprise and then irritated outrage as she realized she was in some kind of room that looked to be a mockery of a torture chamber trying to be a kitchen. But what really peeved her was the sight of seeing her remaining loyal ogre cronies pigging out on various foods and stuffing their faces like savages with atrocious table manners.

"What the hell are you doing in here?!" she seethed in anger, "You were supposed to be waiting for me!"

The ogres only looked on blankly at being caught. The tallest ogre opened his mouth to answer his mistress only to let out a loud belch, causing Gothel to feel disgusted at the stench of his repulsive breath.

"We were, Boss," he explained, "But the food here smelled so good we thought we could have a quick snack."

Gothel growled in frustration as she hissed, "Fools! You listen more to your stomachs and your horny urges more than your brains, if you even had any! Get back out there, put on disguises so no one would know what you are, and find out what those monsters know about my flower, or what that damn Dracula plans to do with her!"

One of the ogres then got distracted again as a gray rat when Esmeralda came out of the shadows and started squeaking angrily at them, protesting at their eating food that clearly wasn't theirs.

The second tallest ogre then grabbed the little rat and said absentmindedly, "Heh, heh, lookie here, fresh rat snack, my favorite."

"Hey, I want a piece, too," demanded his shorter friend as he reached up for the poor rat as she squeaked for help.

Gothel was about to yell and berate them more when she heard a muffled yell from somewhere in the shadows as she told them, "Wait, what's that? And put that filthy vermin down!"

The ogres groaned in a disappointment as Esmeralda was released. Her nose twitched when she picked up that familiar scent from Gothel A human in disguise. The rat quickly skittered to the same shadowed area Gothel heard the muffled yelling.

"Find out what that is," she ordered, and one of the ogres reached over and pulled a wheelbarrow out from the shadowed corner with a pint sized hunched back monster man wearing a chef's hat and uniform and seemed frozen or petrified as he held a frying pan in one hand and his other hand with a finger up his long nose.

He muffled what might have been a cry for help as Gothel walked up to him gracefully in a seductive manner with a sway of her hips and spoke in smug coyness, "Well, well, what do we have here? A little hunchback chef too stiff for picking his nose."

 _"You brainless fools!"_ Quasimodo strained to say through his frozen mouth, but it came out as incoherent muffles, _"Stop eating my food or I'll have Esmeralda scratch your eyes out! And you, woman, you're no maid! Esmeralda can smell you're a human! I should cook you into a stew for that and feed it to those savage ogres for this indignity!"_

Gothel scoffed at his threat, "Oh, please, you're hardly a threat to me in your state. Somehow I think somebody would have noticed you missing by now, and the monsters in this place are stupid or they don't care, either way it's not my problem."

The ogres scratched their heads at the conversation between their mistress and the frozen chef, exchanging questioning looks at what was going on.

Gothel rolled her eyes as she simply droned out, "I can understand 'frozen,' years of experience. You fools wouldn't understand."

The ogres shrugged again as Quasimodo continued to muffle, _"Get out of my kitchen! Help! Somebody, help! There's humans in the hotel!"_

Gothel gave him a look that piqued her interest at the mention of 'humans,' indeed she wasn't the first one to come here and she became all the more certain. She got a little more flirtatious as she tickled Quasimodo's fat chin with a sharp finger tip and said, "There's another human here, hm? Now, how about you be a good little monster and tell Good Mother Gothel where her daughter is. I know she's been here, a pretty young girl with the longest golden hair that glows and heals the sick and injured?"

Something in Quasimodo's mind seemed to light up at this, he even became a bit scared of the woman more and not just because she was another accursed human.

 _"Spiteful human!"_ he muffled in a festering frustration, _"Somehow a human girl found this place and disguised herself as a pretty vampire to blend in with the hotel guests, but she didn't fool Esmeralda's sharp nose. I finally found her playing some ridiculous game with Monsieur Dracula, but I managed to captured her and bring her here to make a delicious Human Potpie for the guests. If Dracula wasn't going to get rid of an invading human himself, I would do it for him as well as make a tasty dinner for the distinguished guests. But Dracula was an even bigger fool than I thought. For some reason he came for her, saved her, and helped her escape from here. I asked what was with him and the human girl but he just barked at me in an obvious lie she was a vampire, like him. But when she didn't scare Esmeralda, I tried to warn the rest of the hotel but then I ended up like this."_

But when Quasimodo explained how he almost made Rapunzel in a 'human potpie' Gothel's eyes lit up with an absolute horrified rage as her face twisted with that same rage.

"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" she sneered with a hiss as a silver dagger suddenly appeared and she held it to Quasimodo's neck as though to slice his throat, and he actually became terrified by her sudden movements, "You monsters are all alike, bloodthirsty and brainless, taking something precious that's rightfully mine!"

Quasimodo actually whimpered in fear at this.

Gothel then tried to calmed down as she remembered where she was and what she was here for, her lovely face then softened a bit to a dark smile as she got a better idea. She called to one of her ogre cohorts as she remembered Dracula had taken her precious flower somewhere in that hearse, and told him to have one of his friends follow the path back and see where that hearse had gone.

She turned back to Quasimodo and spoke with a mixture of seductiveness and arrogance, "Besides, you could be of some use to me, and maybe I could offer you a chance to get back at whoever did this to you."

"Dracula," he muffled.

"Really?" she said charmingly, then in more of a singsong voice, "Then help me get back my flower and you can get revenge on Count Dracula."

If Quasimodo's face was able to express any emotion, he would have smirked evilly at this despite being offered revenge by a human woman. Of course, Esmeralda would be uncomfortable and suspicious of Gothel and what she has to offer as she narrowed her beady eyes to keep a close eye on the woman with graying hair.

Meanwhile, the ogre who had made a total mess of the kitchen refrigerator had gotten orders from one of his friends to go search for the hearse and see where it had gone and come back ASAP. The brutish ogre scratched his head but he went on his way to follow Gothel's orders.

In the meantime the other ogres had their doubts about what they should do as they were told to wait with their mistress in the kitchen, so a few of them wanted to go with the ogre who had been given orders to track down the hearse, Gothel placed a hand on one of their stomachs to stop him and the others from leaving.

"Patience, boys," she smiled in a dark wicked expression, "All good things come to those who wait."

* * *

"Oh, I can't wait to see this surprise you have for me," Rapunzel squeaked in eager excitement.

While driving the hearse crazily through the haunted forest, Dracula's face dropped with a stinging guilt inside his heavy heart. The hearse began to slow down as it grew closer to its destination.

The hearse came to a gradual stop. Rapunzel's smile grew wider as Dracula slowly removed the blindfold and said, "Welcome to the human kingdom of Corona, Rapunzel, my darling."

Eyes growing bigger in awe, Rapunzel saw the hearse had stopped at the edge of the forest and a path lead to a wide and arching bridge over the largest lake she had ever seen and to an island upon which was an inhabited walled town dwarfed by a grand imposing and majestic castle at the center overlooking the entire island like a towering sentinel.

Rapunzel could only stare at the kingdom completely vexed and speechless, not know what to think or feel as she was only numb, completely unsure whether to rejoice with excitement and gratitude or fear and uncertainty as the memory of her horrible experience back in the village in the forest dawned in her mind.

"Is this...?" she asked, and Dracula nodded with a sad smile.

"The place where the lanterns come from," he replied with a choke as he tried to push away his lingering guilt.

He gave a startled gasp as he suddenly found himself being hugged by Rapunzel in a warm embrace, which he gingerly returned as she choked out tearfully, "Thank you, Drac, thank you so much for keeping your promise."

"Of course, my love, it's your birthday. After all, I gave you my word," Dracula responded with tenderness, showing another look of doubtful guilt Rapunzel didn't see.

She then released her tight hold on him but still held on to him as she spoke with some doubt, "But what do I do? I want to see the lanterns, but what if those people are like those others in that other village at the graveyard? What if they try to cut my hair or shove pitchforks in my face? I don't think I can do this, Drac."

Dracula smiled warmly as he gently kissed her forehead and spoke with encouragement, "You're going to be fine, this is your dream. Besides, you know what happens if your hair is cut and they're idiots for trying. And if that ever happens, I will be there to protect you. Now, go live your dream."

"Come with me," the blonde girl insisted.

"What?" the Count gasped almost in terror at the thought of wandering through a human village, "No, no, no. I'd like to, Rapunzel, but uh, eh, it's still day light out and you know what happens to me in the sun. You'll be fine without me, I'll wait right here until you're ready to go back to the hotel."

"Please, come with me Drac," Rapunzel pleaded to him, "My dream doesn't feel worth it without you, and I'll feel so much better if you're with me. I'll find a way to protect you from the sun, please go with me."

She gave him that adorable frown and sad round eyes again. That pouty face both warmed and ached the Count's heart as he felt conflicted with himself from his still lingering guilt and going with her as he saw how much it meant to her.

Finally the vampire caved as he said reluctantly, "Oh, alright."

Rapunzel embraced him again as she thanked him profusely over and over again, though Dracula had a look of doubt and concern on his long pale face. They got out of the hearse together and slowly made their way to the edge of the forest. Dracula stopped short of where the shade ended and Rapunzel shot him a hard frown.

She quickly looked around and noticed other buildings at the edge of the bridge where she found some old laundry hanging by one of them. Rapunzel told Dracula to wait where he was as she quietly snuck away to grab a few pieces of laundry and other bulky looking clothes to disguise him, and hopefully protect him from being burned by the sun until they found a well shaded area.

Gradually, they made their way to the bridge and began to cross it, Rapunzel stared on and meandered back and forth on the bridge in a growing excitement as she turned back to Dracula and mouthed to him "Wow!"

It warmed and gladdened Dracula's heart to see her so happy, and a weight seemed to lift as he thought perhaps after this she won't want to see the outside world again, and maybe he really has done the right thing.

As they made their way into the city, Rapunzel looked around in awe as she turned this way and that with a big eyes and a wide smile, not really knowing where to look first while Dracula tried to stay close to her while staying as much to shaded areas as he could to avoid the sun should his disguise not be enough.

She then came to a bed of flowers near a shaded area and stopped to smell them, only knowing them from books in her tower. Rapunzel inhaled their scent deeply and she sighed happily at their enticing scent, signaling Dracula to come and smell the flowers. He shook his head in reluctance but she grabbed his arm and brought him over to the flower bed. He sniffed reluctantly just to humor her but he released a sudden sneeze that made pollen and petals fly about in a small cloud. Rapunzel giggled amusingly as Dracula shot her an annoyed face, but then he too smiled at how funny it was.

As they strolled arm in arm through the town some more, a large mural of what had to be the royal family caught her eye and she released herself from Dracula's arm to take a closer look as he followed closely. The faces of the king and queen were in shadows while the baby they held was an adorable baby girl with golden hair. This intrigued Rapunzel and made her wonder why the baby girl had golden hair almost like her own when her attention then went to a family at the base of the mural where a little girl held a flower and explained to her little sister, "It's for the Lost Princess."

This also caught Dracula's attention as he studied the mural of the royal family, his curiosity piqued as his gaze shifted from the mural with the baby to Rapunzel and back again. Suspicions began to rise within him as he could see the strong resemblance between his new love and the baby princess in the mural. A chill went down his spine because of his suspicions, but he pushed it away as he nudged Rapunzel and pointed to something else she might find interesting.

A band of musicians were playing music in an open square and people had gathered in a circle to dance. Rapunzel saw what Dracula wanted to do, now that the sun was a bit further down and the square was becoming deeply shaded, they went to a hidden alley and quickly shed Dracula of his protective disguise (although Dracula still wore human clothes to hide his vampire garb). Rapunzel joined in the dancing and tried to get Dracula to join her, but he again refused in reluctance, so Rapunzel pulled him into the dance anyway.

As they spent more time in town together, they found other surprisingly fun things to do and learn in the Kingdom of Corona. They visited the library, where they looked at many books both Dracula and Rapunzel had never knew existed, even maps and atlases of the world and tons of stories neither had never read before.

Shortly after the library, Dracula bought her a fuchsia flag with the royal family's golden sun crest on it, which made Rapunzel ecstatic as she held it up to see it against the many other royal family flags decorated throughout the square.

Soon they took some time to draw a large and intricate sun symbol together as Rapunzel showed off her artistic skills, and became amazed Dracula equaled her in skill as he helped her. The two of them smiled proudly as they drew the sun symbol together, impressing the human townspeople.

Dracula then bought him and Rapunzel cupcakes to share and ate them happily together, neither of the noticing a pair of royal pass by on patrol, one of them gave the now exposed Count a curious and suspicion glance, but they both shrugged it off thinking it didn't matter.

Shortly before the sun had completely set, Dracula and Rapunzel joined in for more dancing in the square, promenading with many other dancers in intertwined circles until they were suddenly in each other's arms, chest to chest, and their hand intertwined, both out of breath as the music ceased.

"To the boats!" someone yelled in the distance.

Dracula and Rapunzel joined the villagers and got into their own personal gondola to have a good view of the lanterns as Dracula slowly rowed them out to the middle of the lake.


	15. I See the Light

"Where are we going?" Rapunzel asked curiously if still excited.

"Well, it is your birthday, right? A birthday is meant to be the best day of your life, right? I figured you should have a decent seat for the big show on your birthday." Dracula explained as he steered the boat out further out on the river, "So I figured you should have a decent seat."

Nightfall had fallen by the time they arrived out in the middle of the lake, now seeing the island kingdom of Corona in full glory with it's imposing castle, impressive even at night. The castle's rooftops and turrets were dark shadows against the night sky. Very few lights were on in the homes of the townspeople due to the nature of the festival. It was very calm and quiet out on the lake.

As they waited for a couple more minutes, Rapunzel sighed in uncomfortable anxiety which Dracula noticed as he asked with in concern, "You okay, my love?"

Rapunzel stared down at her own reflection and shook her head, whispering, "I'm terrified."

Those words confused and surprised Dracula. They had come all this way and were finally about to see the lanterns - the very lanterns Rapunzel had been dreaming about since she was a child - but why was she terrified? Could it have something to do with her experience in the village he built in the forest? But his thoughts were proven incorrect when Rapunzel shrugged.

"I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky... What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?"

Dracula wasn't quite sure what to say, but after he gave it some thought for a moment he smiled reassuringly, "It will be."

"And what if it is? What do I do then?" Rapunzel questioned again, having never thought about what to do with her life after living her life long dream.

"Well, that's a good part I guess," Dracula answered with a shrug, "You get to go find a new dream."

Though he realized it sounded strange coming from him. Because for many years he never considered a new dream for himself, as a life with Martha, building their hotel, and maybe even a family was all the dream he really wanted.

But, what if...

Rapunzel smiled at the thought of finding of new dream, but for now she was grateful beyond words, beyond how she could describe to Dracula how she felt. She was happy that Dracula was here with her and was trying to make this night special for her. She remembered the things had had done that day were not his favorite activities, but he had done them for her without complaining. She knew he had begun to enjoy it, and for some reason that made her feel warm inside.

Meanwhile, the townspeople were getting ready for the final stage of the festival. After a whole day of food and dancing, it was time to acknowledge the true reason this holiday was held. King Frederic and Queen Arianna looked sadder than ever. Their expressions grave as they silently released their sun-stamped, marshmallow shaped, pillow lantern high into the sky. It had been eighteen years since their daughter was stolen from them by that wicked Gothel. Eighteen years of waiting for their daughter's return, and now they were beginning to lose hope of ever seeing their precious child again.

The townspeople standing in the courtyard waited until the King and Queen's lantern had been released, so they can all release their own lanterns as well. All through the streets and marketplaces, the citizens let their lanterns go. Everybody in town participated out of love and respect for the royal family. It was a whole mass of many different people united in finding their lost princess, and most of the townsfolk hoped Gothel would suffer the consequences for abducting the princess.

Out on the lake, Dracula and Rapunzel sat in their boat waiting patiently for the spectacle to begin, just enjoying each other's company as Dracula held some small flowers for Rapunzel and she delicately set them on the water's surface.

Then a faint glimmer of light reflected from the water's reflection caught Rapunzel's attention. She glanced up and saw a lantern - the very same lantern her parents had recently set up - rising from behind the dark walls of the castle.

Rapunzel quickly ran to the prow of the boat, wrapping her arms around it as her abrupt movements nearly made the boat tip over. Dracula hastily tried to maintain balance, while recovering from his dizziness so he could watch his darling Rapunzel anxiously gaze up at the single, floating lantern.

Pretty soon, it was gradually followed by many more floating lanterns as they began to float up into the night sky. Right above the kingdom, hundreds of lanterns were floating upward. And then more lanterns rose up from the great ships resting in the harbor. The rising lanterns transformed the dark night into a sea of lanterns that drifted gracefully through the air.

All her life her only dream in the world was to see the floating lanterns and now she was right there, watching them in person. So enveloped in joyous emotions too complicated to describe, she had finally seen her dream come true. It was better than she had ever thought it could be. But there was another wondrous feeling that rose inside of her, like she had finally found where she truly belonged after a lifetime of wondering and longing.

 ** _(Rapunzel)_**  
 ** _All those days watching from the windows_**  
 ** _All those years outside looking in_**  
 ** _All that time never even knowing_**  
 ** _Just how blind I've been_**

 ** _Now I'm here blinking in the starlight_**  
 ** _Now I'm here, suddenly I see_**  
 ** _Standing here, it's all so clear_**  
 ** _I'm where I'm meant to be_**

 ** _And at last I see the light_**  
 ** _And it's like the fog has lifted_**  
 ** _And at last I see the light_**  
 ** _And it's like the sky is new_**

 ** _And it's warm and real and bright_**  
 ** _And the world has somehow shifted_**  
 ** _All at once everything looks different_**  
 ** _Now that I see you_**

For Dracula, he gazed at the beauty and warm golden glow he witnessed for this had to be as close to being in true day light for him without getting burned to a crisp by the real sun. He had to admit it was the most magnificent sight he had ever seen. As he gazed at Rapunzel and how she watched the hundreds of rising lanterns before her like an excitable little girl, a warm and loving feeling rose within him, like he had been lost for a long time but was found again by this curious, fiery, passionate, and beautiful human girl. How much he had sacrificed to make her happy and bring her here. Somehow he could tell she felt the same way as he seemed to notice the glow with her own golden light in the sea of lanterns which had completely surrounded them like they were in another world.

It was a feeling both of them wanted to last forever, but Dracula secretly hid a terrifying feeling of loosing Rapunzel forever, just like he lost Martha. He couldn't bare such a thought. It would be worse than have a stake shoved into his heart. He had to find a way to keep her safe and keep her with him for eternity, unless...Yes, this could work and he knew how to do it.

But for now there was now only this moment.

Rapunzel heard a faint noise and turned to look at the vampire, as though seeing him for the first time and at the same time like she had known him her whole life, as if the two lovers finally found each other after being lost for so long. He smiled at her as he held two lanterns just for them, and in her eyes he looked so magnificent in the golden glow of the sea of lanterns, like he was her guardian angel or the other half of her very soul.

As he watched her take her seat back in the boat, Rapunzel said, "I don't have anything for you, other than to say thank you. And I love you, so much. I've been so scared my whole life, even after leaving that tower. But when I'm with you, the thing is, I'm not scared anymore. Do you know what I mean?"

Dracula smiled as he gently touched her hand and spoke tenderly, "I'm staring to. And I love you, too."

He handed her one of the lanterns, and together as one they raised their lanterns to the air to fly among the hundreds more and add their light, as if to show their own souls now flew freely with the ethereal. One particular lantern caught Rapunzel's eye as she pointed to it with an excited grin, and held out her hand to it out in the water. Dracula noticed it had the Sun crest of the royal family on it, and it seemed like a strange omen somehow as it landed on Rapunzel's finger delicate tips and she lifted it upward to fly higher.

 ** _(Dracula)_**  
 ** _All those days chasing down a memory_**  
 ** _All those years living in a blur_**  
 ** _All that time never truly seeing things_**  
 ** _The way they were_**

 ** _Now she's here shining in the starlight_**  
 ** _Now she's here, suddenly I know_**  
 ** _If she's here, it's crystal clear_**  
 ** _I'm where I'm meant to go_**

Determined to show her how he felt, Dracula took both of her hands into his. The look in Rapunzel's eyes showed love and understanding. She returned the feeling as she sang along with him. As they looked deep into each other's eyes, the Count held her hands romantically in his own.

 **(Dracula & Rapunzel)**  
 **And at last I see the light**

 **(Dracula)**  
 **And it's like the fog has lifted**

 **(Dracula & Rapunzel)**  
 **And at last I see the light**

 **(Rapunzel)**  
 **And it's like the sky is new**

 **(Dracula & Rapunzel)**  
 **And it's warm and real and bright**  
 **And the world has somehow shifted**  
 **All at once everything looks different**  
 **Now that I see you, now that I see you**

He caressed her hair tenderly behind her ear and his touch lightly made its way down her cheek to hold it. He gently held her face to bring her closer to his own for a kiss as her eyes slowly closed, awaiting his lips to meet hers.

While Dracula wanted to kiss her, he had something else in mind. What Rapunzel didn't see was that Dracula's gentle blue eyes began to glow a deadly red glow as he opened his mouth slightly to reveal his fangs growing longer. He eyed Rapunzel's neck and slowly leaned in closer to bite it.

But then, a strange movement in the dark shadows caught his attention. The red glow in his eyes vanished as he stopped to use his advanced sight ability to look closer. At the banks of the lake, just at the edge of a forested area, the heavy but unmistakable silhouette of an ogre could be seen, and the brute seemed to be smirking at what he had seen.

Dracula felt his stomach drop. They had to leave. Now.

Rapunzel noticed something was wrong when she didn't get her kiss and opened her eyes. "What is it?" she asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah," Dracula stammered as he looked at her as though coming out of a momentary shock, "Everything is wonderful, my darling. But, uh, it's getting really late now. We need to be heading back to the hotel, for the big birthday extravaganza I planned for you."

Rapunzel knew something seemed to shake Dracula, but she couldn't put her finger on it. But she smiled at the thought of more of her birthday celebration tonight and muttered, "Okay."

Dracula began quickly rowing them back into the walled city, away from the ogre watching them, certain he meant trouble. They would then make their way back to the hearse, and drive like bats out of hell back to the hotel for Rapunzel's birthday party. And maybe then, he will find a chance to bite her, and they can be together forever.

But little did he know the ogre who had seen what the vampire had almost done was already running back to the hotel to report to his mistress, chuckling wickedly, "Boy, oh boy! The boss is going to love this!"

* * *

Wayne had trouble sleeping, having several of his pups and snoring on top of him and his bloodshot eyes wide open. Wanda slept peacefully beside him, not even disturbed by her pups' snoring. As soon as Wayne slowly closed his eyes, the skeleton phone started shrieking. The wolf pups woke up howling in his eyes, forcing his eyes to snap open.

"I didn't order a wake up call," Wayne grumbled through the phone's receiver as his wife and pups got put of bed.

 _"Count Dracula arranged it for all the rooms,"_ answered a witch maid's voice.

The tired werewolf placed the receiver back on the skeleton phone, but the phone continued to shriek loudly.

"Where's the snooze button?!" he growled as he tried desperately to shut it up.

"There will be no snoozing!" responded the skeleton phone, "The party's today!"

Elsewhere in the hotel, Rapunzel put on her vampire makeup and disguise to get ready, but she wanted to wear something special for her big night. Looking at the untouched pile of beautiful gowns Dracula once left for her, she knew how hard it will be to choose the right one. Lucky for her, Pascal and Salem were there to solve her dilemma. When Rapunzel had left the hotel with Dracula, the cat and the chameleon quickly made her a new dress similar to her vampire costume, except it was different. When Rapunzel first saw the gown, it took her breath away, She thanked her two animal friends multiple times before grabbing the gown and rushed into the bathroom to put it on.

The rest of hotel soon became alive with a frenzy as all of the monsters started getting ready, such as Griffin shaving his face, combing his invisible hair, and damping white powder on his butt, smirking, "Oh, yeah. Perfecto."

In his own room, Dracula discreetly hid a small, gift wrapped box inside his jacket pocket, his eyes widened as he did so, and then quickly left the room. It was a present for Rapunzel. A very special present, to surprise her during the party and to seal their love forever.

* * *

At that moment, Vlad and Bela arrived just outside the hotel, crossing the long bridge as Vlad said in an observant tone, "Hotel Transylvania."

"I smell... HUMANS!" Bela yelled in disgust, "TEAR IT DOWN!"

The crony flexed his long deadly claws in eagerness, but Vlad explained what should have been obvious, "Bela, we're in the outside world. You're gonna smell humans. You know what, just wait outside for me. This is family stuff; you'll only get in the way." He patted his bat minion's head like common lap dog, causing Bela to growl, as Vlad continued, "I just wanna meet this girl my son has met, she should know her future father-in-law."

"Her what?!" Bela yelled in a confused tone.

"I want my son to continue the Dracula bloodline. C'mon, that was obvious," Vlad replied as he made his way to the castle.


	16. Secrets and Lies

The ballroom was booming with the Drac Pack's newly birthday song for the party, with an electro dance mix to it. A ghost table floated above the crowd of dancing monsters with a group of Wayne's unruly pups rocking out to the music, but their baby sister Winnie was so annoyed by this she beat her brothers off the table and finally danced alone while still sucking her binkie. Sirena and Bianca were dancing happily together, earning many approved whistles and cheers from a group of male partygoers. Salem spun on the floor while Pascal did the wave close by.

Elsewhere, Dracula had arrived at last, proudly overseeing the party. Monsters all around were congratulating him on the success of the party.

"Terrific party."

"You really outdid yourself, Drac."

"Gotta be the best one I've been to in 200 years!"

While he smiled and basked in the praise, Dracula felt a small bit of disappointment because the person he hoped to see wasn't there yet. Monsters continued to praise him, until his wide blue eyes finally saw who he was hoping to see.

Rapunzel, the girl of the hour, the Birthday Girl herself, had arrived in a lovely rose red gown and gazed at Dracula with a smile. The dress she wore was a fuchsia sleeveless gown, and her new cape was similar to Dracula's while she wore golden glass slippers on her feet. The dress had golden sun patterns sewn on the dress, resembling the very crest of the royal family of Corona.

"Wow! You look beautiful," Dracula greeted in deep awestruck, as he looked her up and down.

"Thanks," she replied bashfully, "Thanks for the party."

"Oh, yes," Dracula added with a wide smile, "You like my little touches?"

Glowing brightly in different colors, thousands of little fireflies flew in a pattern forming the image of a big red heart surrounding the forming letters which read 'Happy Birthday Rapunzel.'

"It's… amazing," Rapunzel gasped in awestruck at Dracula's birthday present.

The Count held out an arm for her to take, like an old-fashioned gentleman, which she took as he escorted Rapunzel to the dance floor. Both were then flanked by two security suits of armor guards.

Dracula bounced his head in rhythm to the pounding dance music, with Rapunzel still on holding his arm. As the monsters opened a space to let them through, the world's most famous vampire then leapt onto the dance floor to bust some moves in a break dance spin and a Russian style dance upside down, as his cape came alive to boogie off to the side.

Everyone cheered, even Rapunzel as she stared at his sudden dance moves in surprise. Dracula momentarily in a ta-da pose before breaking into dancing again. Then Dracula got a mischievous look in his eyes. He let himself fall back as Rapunzel tried to catch him, but he transformed into blue mist and pulled her further onto the dance floor and began to dance enthusiastically with her when he resumed his true form.

As the couple were enjoying their own dance together Rapunzel momentarily bumped into the large foot of Bigfoot, who growled in annoyance, but Rapunzel quickly apologized, "Sorry, Mr. Bigfoot."

But before she could resume dancing, Rapunzel halted. Dracula was no longer in front her. Looking around in mild concern, Rapunzel suddenly heard his voice which seemed to echo everywhere in the room.

"Can I have your attention, please?" Rapunzel looked towards the stage to see Dracula speaking through a microphone. The music ceased and the crowd stopped dancing to focus their full attention to the hotel manager. "I have a special announcement to make. But, I would like Rapunzel to come on up here."

The spotlight landed on the surprised birthday girl, not knowing what Dracula was up to. Behind her, the others monsters cheered or encouraged her to go. Especially Sirena and Bianca, Salem and Pascal. With a smile, Rapunzel boldly approached the stage just as Dracula stepped towards the edge of the stage and held out a hand to her. She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her up on stage.

"Rapunzel... this one last gift I hope you will take." Dracula presented his small gift to the birthday girl, who took it eagerly and began tearing it open, determined to find out what it is.

It was only a small black box, but something was inside the box. Slowly, she opened it. What Rapunzel found inside the box took her breath away. A gold ring with a blue gemstone on it.

"Rapunzel... my love..." Dracula gazed up at her with an expression filled with hope and love, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Rapunzel felt happiness pass through her. Eyes filled with tears, she was about to respond to his proposal when...

 _BANG!_

Suddenly, there came a loud crack of thunder as lightning flashed from somewhere and the great hall door burst open to reveal an old and cranky looking vampire, with a menacing red background behind him.

All of the monsters froze at the old vampire's sudden arrival when he then demanded loudly with a raspy voice, "Alright, where's my future daughter-in-law?!"

Everyone stared at him in silent shock, not knowing what to do or say. One yeti even let his champagne glass fall and shatter, the only noise to be heard for a few long seconds.

"DAD?!" Dracula yelled in hysteria. "What are you doing here?!" Then he groaned sourly, "And still having to make a dramatic entrance."

"I was invited, of course," Vlad replied, clearly less than impressed with his son as he continued in a disapproving scoff, "So you run a hotel now. From Prince of Darkness to King of Room Service."

"Yes, so good to see you, too." Dracula greeted unemotionally.

Dracula turned his attention to Rapunzel, not knowing why she was smiling when his father had so rudely interrupted the party. He knew how much his father hated humans and if he discovered Rapunzel's humanity, he would have her killed. He had to keep her away from his father, for her safety. He swiftly tried to block Rapunzel from Vlad's view as he started scooching her out of view.

"I want to say hello to your father!" she exclaimed, trying to push the vampire aside.

"No, you don't!" he retorted harshly, before whispering to Frank after he ate an entire plate of raw fish eyes, "Keep Vlad distracted!"

"I'm on it." Frank's mouth was full of food as he gave his friend a salute. Then Frank quickly made his way over to the newly arrived Vlad as he greeted nervously, "Hey, Count, how goes it? I'm Frankenstein. Actually, I'm technically 'Frankenstein's monster' you know, Frankenstein he's the doctor who..."

But Vlad started to walk away as he responded to Frank in boredom, "Would love to hear more. Call my people."

But Frank jumped in front of him again as he tried to say friendly, "So let me, uh, introduce you to some of your son's other buddies."

The two walked up to Murray, who was busy kissing the hand of the Mummette, as Frank introduced him, "Uh, this is Murray."

"Ah, please don't kill me!" Murray shrieked, then tried to play it cool as he cleared his throat and smiled, "I mean, uh, yo, V! What's up?"

"Talking toilet paper," Vlad drolled, looking unimpressed, "Well, that's a new one."

Murray seemed to shrink into himself.

"Alright, where's this girl my son is crazy over? That's who I want to meet," Vlad announced with authority as he straightened out his high collar.

Rapunzel peeked out from behind a group of socializing monsters and skipped up to her future father-in-law in a perky, excited mood. "Here I am!"

"Is this the girl?" Vlad asked, pointing to Rapunzel.

"Heh, she sure is," Frank answered.

"My name is Rapunzel," she greeted, curtsying before the powerful vampire. "Thank you for coming to my party."

"Of course, when I got your invitation..." Vlad put on his best friendly smile to the lovely female blonde vampire as he replied, "I just wanted to meet the girl whose drove my son crazy."

Dracula's face dropped in horror at what he overheard, and his heart felt like it had been ripped out from his chest. Rapunzel, the girl of his dreams, had invited his father to her party? How could she do that?

In a second, an enraged Dracula zigzagged through the crowd easily in a trial of blue mist. He separated the two with a look of murderous anger on his face and he stared down at Rapunzel in betrayal, who had a look of fear on her own face.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Dracula snarled furiously, " _AFTER I SHARED MY PAIN WITH YOU?!"_

"But… No…" Rapunzel stammered in a frightened voice.

Vlad immediately came between his angered son and Rapunzel. "What's the matter with you?! Can't you see we're in engaged in polite conversation?!"

"You stay out of this, Dad!" Dracula blew him off.

"That's how you talk to your father," Vlad said accusingly with a finger at Dracula, "You bite necks with that mouth?"

"Drac, listen," Rapunzel decided to step in and explain herself, "I invited your dad to my party so you two can patch things up."

"And how would you expect me to do that?" Dracula questioned in a rude sarcastic manner. "You don't know my father like I do."

"But, if you just give him a chance..." Rapunzel pleaded, until Pascal crawled up braid to her shoulder, just to stick his tongue out at the vampire.

"What is that? A frog?" Vlad pointed his boney finger at the chameleon.

"No, this is a chameleon," said Rapunzel, "This is Pascal, my friend."

"Friend?!" Vlad mocked manically. "Ha! First, my son used to be in love with a baby raccoon, and now his girlfriend is in love with a frog."

"Alright, Dad," Dracula groaned, as if trying to keep something quiet.

"Wait!" Rapunzel asked, catching on, "Drac loved raccoons?"

"Yeah. Ever since he was a boy." Vlad answered humorously. "What? He's always pretended he's Mr. Tough Guy? The boy was in love with a baby raccoon."

Some of the listening monsters nearby started snickering at Dracula, who seemed to shrink into himself in more humiliation and annoyance at his father. Rapunzel only thought it sounded adorable as she gushed, "Aww."

"I had to terrify the sweetness out him," Vlad told the story to Rapunzel, "Sort of like a wussy exorcism. Let's just say I took away his security blanket."

* * *

Hundreds of years ago, in what might have been an old and large castle fortress, a five year old boy with slicked back raven black hair and a moon round face showing one day they will grow into sharp handsome features, slept in a child sized bed styled like an open coffin, or a regular toy box, with an adorable baby raccoon sleeping by his side, and the little boy wore raven black pajamas with red lining.

A dark shadow flew by swiftly to the open window like the wind that blew through. A much younger Vlad then peeked out from behind a curtain with a menacing smile on his long face as he raised a hand and red tinted mist enveloped it as his eyes began to glow a laser red.

The baby raccoon by the little boy's side woke up surprised to find herself levitating away from her best friend, so she chittered loudly to wake him up for help. The boy felt for his friend and realized she was gone. He looked up and watched worriedly as the little raccoon continued to chitter for help as she reached out to him.

But then her little head began to spin around. The boy whimpered in fear from behind his pillow. What was happening to his sweet little friend? All of a sudden the raccoon's eyes glowed a demonic red as she growled sinisterly at the boy, and when the possessed baby raccoon roared dangerously at him, the boy screamed in terror as two long and sharp fangs suddenly burst in his mouth and he gave his own fierce roar at the little raccoon.

Whimpering in fear of whom was once her friend, who didn't mean to frighten her, the baby raccoon recoiled and ran away and out the door. Little Dracula watched her run off with tears slowly welled up in his bright blue eyes from guilt and sadness, as a proud Vlad emerged from the shadows of his bedroom.

* * *

"Lulu..." a now grown Dracula moaned sadly, as tears slowly welled up in his bright blue eyes at that sad memory.

"Still resents me for it," Vlad said as he concluded his story.

Rapunzel put a hand to her chest as she thought about how terrified Dracula had been as a child to lose his closest and best animal friend he only had as a child. She turned to Pascal, who still sat on her shoulder, showing he felt terrible for the vampire as she did. Having heard about Mother Gothel's crimes from Dracula, Rapunzel began to wonder if her own mother would ever do such a thing to Pascal to get her fangs to come out, if they were vampires. She felt nothing but anger and regret for inviting Vlad to her birthday party.

"How could you do that to your own son?!" Rapunzel seethed at him with rage.

"I had to do it. I had to get his fangs to come out," Vlad said dismissively as though he had done nothing wrong.

"I told you that you didn't know him like I do," Dracula mocked.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Rapunzel held up her hands in defeat, "You were right about your father, Drac. He's just as cruel as my own mother."

"Your mother?" Vlad questioned, raising an eyebrow before he remembered something else. "Now that you mentioned it, if you're going to marry my son I need to meet your family, so I can know what's your family bloodline."

"Oh! Uh, she's a direct descendant of the..." Before Dracula could come up with a name, Rapunzel had cut him off.

"I just found out my mother is a horrible person after she tried to cut my hair in the village."

"Village? What village?" Vlad asked suspiciously, causing Dracula to sweat in terror.

At the mention of the village in the forest, Rapunzel suddenly perked up. Because of her adventures in the Kingdom of Corona, Rapunzel thought about giving the outside world another try, perhaps the people in the village might listen to reason now and show them her true identity. "Now that you mentioned it, Dracula, as soon as my party is over can you take me back to that village past the cemetery?"

Dracula was shocked by her request, as he grabbed Rapunzel by her shoulders, "WHAT!? You saw it, y-you said you didn't _like_ it!"

"Maybe I want to give the village another chance," she retorted, "I just need to learn, you know, how to make peace with those people, like in Corona."

"No, no!" Dracula fearfully tried to dissuade his girlfriend, "You can't go to the village again!"

"Maybe you can make them see that we can be friends."

"No, that isn't possible!"

"Well you can't be sure. It's all in how you present yourself!"

"NO! That won't make a difference!"

"How do you know?"

"Because it just won't!"

"WHY? Why WON'T it?!

"BECAUSE THAT VILLAGE DOESN'T REALLY EXSIST!"

And a half moment too late he realized what he had just said because the next thing he knew, save for the flashing party ambiance, the music stopped and everyone ceased dancing. Everyone, including Rapunzel, was in a state of shock. The snapping on one of Frank's guitar strings was heard.

"What do you mean…'doesn't exist'?" Rapunzel asked with hurt and confusion in her voice.

"What did you _do?!_ " Frank demanded accusingly as he and all of Dracula's friends, including Bianca and Sirena and Salem, gathered around with looks of disgust and confusion.

"I… I did what I _had_ to do," Dracula responded defiantly as he crossed his arms.

"What was it?" Rapunzel interrogated the Count with obvious suspicion, "What exactly did you _have_ to do? TELL ME!"

Her anger showed strong at the last two words, making Dracula actually flinch and have a look of guilt on his face. The same guilt after telling Rapunzel about Martha. The same guilt after he took her to Corona to fulfill her dream.

"I... I built the town," Dracula confessed, "The staff put it all together, the… the zombies dressed up as the townspeople."

Two nearby zombie bellhops groaned in admittance, "Uh-huh."

Rapunzel stared at the vampire before she turned her back on him, completely heartbroken and shocked by what she had been told as the truth sank in. If it was true the zombies disguised themselves as the villagers then that means - her mother never intended to cut her hair or betray her hair's magic to others. And maybe, just maybe, the story he fabricated of Gothel murdering Martha was all a myth. But, right now she felt anger. Anger at the vampire who claimed to have loved her, only tricked her to keep her for himself.

"Please! I…" Dracula pleaded, "If you really went out there and something happened to you, I, I… I just couldn't live with myself!"

"But you can live with _this?!_ " Rapunzel accused him as she turned to face him in hurt anger, _"Lying to me; tricking me?!_ Keeping me here forever when you _knew_ my dream was to go see the floating lights?! You really ARE a monster, and I will NEVER marry you!"

And with that, she smacked him the face so hard a faint red mark began to form on his pale face, causing everyone in the room to gasp. Taking the box, containing the ring, out of Pascal's waiting mouth, Rapunzel threw the box at Dracula's face with such force it hurt him for a moment before the box fell to the floor at his feet.

Saddened, Dracula opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but the next moment there came a kind of loud groaning. It was the still frozen chef, Quasimodo, being rolled into the ballroom in a wheelbarrow by his pet rat, Esmeralda.

"Liar! Liar!" Quasimodo muffled loudly for everyone to hear.

Almost as if his face could say 'uh-oh,' Dracula could only hunch into himself, as if guilty of something besides his deception to Rapunzel.

"Oil?" Murray guessed.

Gaping in fear, Rapunzel gently took Pascal and she quietly slipped away through the crow of monsters, knowing all too well why the psychotic chef was there.

"Uh-uh, Uh-uh," Quasimodo continued to say gibberish in a muffled voice.

"English, please," Eunice groaned, "Your voice is really annoying."

"Wait, I speak frozen," said the Fly as he flew up to the petrified chef, "He says Dracula has brought a human into the hotel."

The crowd released a chorus of shocked gasps, not believing what they were hearing. A gremlin couple held each other in fear.

Rapunzel was near the door, momentarily thinking she and Pascal were home free when Quasimodo muffled again and the Fly translated, "He says, 'There is ze human,' he has a French accent."

Just as she was about to step out the door, it was shut closed by an angry Esmeralda, who growled at her. Rapunzel gasped, as did Dracula in shock. Then the entire crowd, including Vlad, gasped in shock at the accused suspect, who only looked back at the crowd in fear.

"Rapunzel's not a human," Frank announced with clear doubt in defense of her, not noticing his vampire friend slinking behind his own cape in fear, "She's a vampire. He's _lying._ " Frank leaned in close enough to be nose to long nose with Quasimodo at those last two words.

"Yeah," agreed Griffin, "And why is he picking his nose?"

The chef muffled again and the Fly translated, "He said 'It's a long story.'"

"Hey, wait!" Rapunzel cried as Esmeralda started crawling all over her face, "No! Get off me! Oh, Ew!" The rat licked her make up off and pulled her false fangs out of Rapunzel's mouth, "Pfft, blegh! Rat fur!"

Now her make up was so badly smeared and licked off by the rat, her real skin tone shone through, and her blunt teeth exposed, her identity has been exposed.

The rat squeaked loudly to get everyone's attention and Quasimodo muffled smugly, as the Fly translated in his monotone, "He says 'Behold ze human.'"

Pandemonium broke out. Every monster in the room started to panic, there was screaming and rampant running around as if their lives were in danger. The only monsters who never panicked were Sirena and Bianca, and especially Salem, knowing all too well it was their fault a human had discovered the hotel.

"I don't believe it." Frank gasped horrified.

An exposed and regretful Rapunzel tried to calm everyone down to no avail, "Wait, I won't hurt you! I'm your friend, remember?!"

"Rapunzel, I... I'm sorry..." she heard a familiar Romanian accented voice say her name as she turned to see Dracula come closer to her and embraced her lovingly, exclaiming, "I don't care what anyone says! I still want to be with you."

Remembering the tricks he pulled on her to crush her dreams and the lies he created to keep her locked away forever in this castle, Rapunzel pulled Dracula's embrace off of herself, and shoved him away hard as she glared furiously at him for his betrayal.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Rapunzel screamed, "I _don't_ want to be with you, because…you're a _monster!_ And I _hate_ monsters!"

Dracula gasped quietly at what she said, clearly hurt by her sudden rejection as he watched her go to the door.

"GOODBYE!" Rapunzel growled, giving Dracula one last stare of hatred and heartbreak before she left through the door with another loud slam.

Dracula stared on in silence for a long moment, until Vlad grabbed him by the shoulder to turn his attention on him.

"YOU! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" he yelled accusingly as he pointed a long boney finger at his son, "You've almost ruined our bloodline! Thousands of years nearly down the trash, and worse, you've let a human into this place you claimed is sanctuary for monsters!"

Dracula had a frown on his face, a look of realizing in a way he knew this was coming and he should have fessed up in the first place.

"You're a disappointment to vampires everywhere, including me!" Vlad transformed into a bat and flew away, leaving behind a trail of a blackish red cloud.

The crowd of monster guests then too began to leave, several of them voiced their disappointment. Everyone was angry with Dracula for his lies.

"We're getting out of here!"

"I thought I smelled humans."

"I'm never coming back here again."

"'Human free'? What a rip off!"

Even Dracula's friends were mad and disappointed in him, following the crowd and giving him dirty looks at they left, but Dracula was oblivious to them. He continued to look up with a sad, shameful look on his face in the direction Vlad had flown off to.

Long minutes passed and he didn't move again until he was completely alone in the ball room. Head down, he slowly began to walk away when a blue sparkle caught his eye. He slowly made his way to see what it was and pick up the gleaming object.

It was the engagement ring he planned to give to Rapunzel, the same ring he once used to propose to Rapunzel. Suddenly overwhelmed with guilt and loneliness, he fell to his knees on the spot. Vlad was right. This was all his fault.

* * *

In the hotel's lobby, an irritated Rapunzel marched her way toward the revolving door to escape this monstrous place, and to freedom. Just then, a dark shadow loomed over her. She paused, gradually turning around to see who it was.

"Hello, sweetheart," the ogre greeted with an evil smirk, "Remember us?"

One by one, the ogres emerged from their hiding places (behind the sofas, inside the storage closets, and behind the reception desk) approaching the girl in a threatening manner.

"Oh no." Rapunzel felt dread pass through her as the ogres surrounded, blocking her escape. For the first time in her life Rapunzel truly understood what her mother meant about monsters wanting to kill her or steal her hair. She closed her eyes, waiting for it to happen.

Thankfully, Gothel decided to end the charade she had concocted with the ogres. Using a big candelabra, she struck down the ogres one at a time. She had known exactly where Rapunzel had gone to, for she had witnessed the devastating events at Rapunzel's party, and helped bring Quasimodo to the party to expose Rapunzel's humanity.

Slowly opening her eyes, Rapunzel noticed Gothel standing near the unconscious bodies of the ogres gazing at her with frightened concern. "Mother?" Timidly, Rapunzel came closer to the dark haired woman, uncertain if she was a zombie dressed up like her or not. "Is it you? Or are you another zombie in disguise?"

"No, no! It's me, darling!" Gothel tossed the big candelabra to the side, then rushed over to scoop up Rapunzel in a tight embrace. "I've been worried sick about you!"

Relieved this was her true mother before her and feeling her safe in her arms, Rapunzel slid her arms around her mother sighing deeply. "But, how did you find me?"

"I discovered the village in the forest where those wretched zombies were on fire, and I followed them through an underground tunnel, which lead me right to my precious flower," Gothel explained, feigning relief and concern in her voice. "Did they hurt you?"

"No, of course not." Rapunzel shook her head.

"Oh, good. Now, come. Let's get out of here before they wake up!" Gothel took hold of Rapunzel's wrist and quickly lead her through the revolving door to escape.

As she looked back at the monster-infested hotel, Rapunzel a mixture of emotions rushing through her. Frightened. Scared. Hurt. Angry. Heartbroken. All of these she felt due to Dracula's betrayal and lies. She ran alongside her fake mother, stifling a sob, "You were right, Mother."

"I know, dear." Underneath her hood, Gothel smirked malevolently. "I know."

Of course, little did they realize the only creature who saw the two women flee the castle was angry, suspicious Bela.


	17. Dracula and Rapunzel's realizations

Dracula sat on the rooftop of the castle with his arms wrapped around his knees, and was watching the nighttime sky. His heart had been broken, rejected by the very girl he longed to protect and care for, all because of his selfish decisions to force her to fall in love with him. How he wished he could erase his own mind to forget everything that had happened in the last three days. Yet no, he couldn't. He could never forget those moments he shared with her. Especially the first time he kissed her and... Oh, how he wished he'd never enthrall her to his physical lust. He only abused her trust, made things worse by manipulating her about the village set up in the haunted forest. Instead of wishing to have his memories erased, he wished he could drive a stake through his own heart. But he didn't have the heart to do it.

Through the roof window, Sirena and Bianca exchanged looks at one another, they knew he must know the truth, and something else. The two girls climbed on to the roof and carefully approached heartbroken tear stricken vampire, sitting next to him. The Count felt their presence, but he said nothing.

After sitting in complete silence for a while, Bianca broke that silence, "Count, we have to talk to you."

"No, I want to be left alone," Dracula said bitterly, as he put his head on his knees. "My dad was right," he sniffled, "Humans are our enemy."

"That's not true!" Bianca objected. "Rapunzel is our friend, but you're only sitting here feeling for yourself!"

"Shut it, Bianca!" Sirena hushed her friend. "That's not the reason why we're here." To Dracula, Sirena continued, "Listen Count, we got a confession to make." Hesitating, she prepared herself when she spilled the beans. "We're the ones who brought Rapunzel to the hotel in the first place."

"WHAT?!" Dracula shot up, staring down at the two monsters in disbelief and anger. "How could you?!" he questioned in rage, "YOU two are the ones responsible for this mess!"

"We know, and we're sorry." Bianca's body trembled in fear as the Prince of Darkness towered over her.

"We thought she was a half human half witch hybrid because of her magic hair," explained Sirena.

Dracula lifted a suspicious eyebrow. "You know about her hair?"

"It was the time she healed my leg while trying to push the hearse out of a ditch."

The two female monsters told the whole story to Dracula, from their encounter in the haunted forest all the way up to the events at the birthday party. After a while, Dracula's body posture relaxed.

"But, we have something else for you." Bianca reached over to her side and picked up a book. She handed the book to Dracula, who took it and read it.

 _"True Love, by Martha Lubov Dracula._

 _Two lonely bats crashed in the night._

 _They felt a Zing. Love at first sight._

 _They knew right then they would be husband and wife._

 _For a Zing only happens once in your life._

 _You will always be my first Zing, My Love._

 _I will always cherish it._

 _Love, Martha."_

Dracula stared at those words, shocked by what he just read.

"I think you Zinged, Count," said Bianca, breaking the vampire away from his thoughts.

"You mean, Rapunzel and I?" he gasped in surprise as he held the book close to his chest, realizing too late he zinged again with Rapunzel.

"But you blew it, Count," added Sirena. "You destroyed her... emotionally. I guess she's become like you now."

Standing up, Sirena took Bianca by the hand and lead her back through the open roof window.

Alone on the roof, Dracula felt his own sadness affect him, the shame weighing heavily on his shoulders. He knew they were right. The memories of those past three days haunted him, remembering the pain he had caused for Rapunzel. He only wanted to keep her to himself because he believed he would always protect her. But his guilty conscience for deceiving her brought distrust and misery to her when she found out. Now, he will never see her again. Especially his closest monster friends. After all this time swearing to keep monsterkind safe, he felt like he betrayed their trust by falling in love with a human. Even his own father said he was a disappointment to vampires everywhere. He couldn't decide which was worse. A tear escaped the Count's eye as it rolled down his cheek before he sang.

 **How can I just let you walk away**  
 **Just let you leave without a trace**  
 **When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh ooh**  
 **You're the only one who really knew me at all**

 **How can you just walk away from me**  
 **When all I can do is watch you leave**  
 **Cause we've shared the laughter and the pain**  
 **And even shared the tears**  
 **You're the only one who really knew me at all**

 **So take a look at me now**  
 **Well there's just an empty space**  
 **And there's nothing left here to remind me**  
 **Just the memory of your face**  
 **Ooh, take a look at me now**  
 **Well there's just an empty space**  
 **And you coming back to me is against the odds**  
 **And that's what I've got to face**

 **I wish I could just make you turn around**  
 **Turn around and see me cry**  
 **There's so much I need to say to you**  
 **So many reasons why**  
 **You're the only one who really knew me at all**

 **So take a look at me now**  
 **Well there's just an empty space**  
 **And there's nothing left here to remind me**  
 **Just the memory of your face**

 **Now take a look at me now**  
 **Cause that's just an empty space**  
 **But to wait for you is all I can do**  
 **And that's what I've got to face**

 **Take a good look at me now**  
 **Cause I'll still be standing here**  
 **And you coming back to me is against all odds**  
 **It's the chance I've got to take**  
 **Take a look at me now**

Holding the book closer to his heart, Dracula stared up into the sky for a moment before sighing, "Martha, what have I done?"

The sun began to rise over the mountainous horizon as a thought came to him and determination grew inside him. Whatever it took, he will bring Rapunzel back.

* * *

That same morning, the lobby was all a bustle with enraged monster guests and staff trying to be the first to check out, all of them shouting in anger over last night.

"Bill! Bill!" shouted a pink Gillman, his eyes going wide as a zombie bellhop showed it to him, then shouted, "That's not MY bill!"

"Take my key! Take my key!" shouted a gargoyle, while Marty the palest Gillman blubbered loudly and all the other monsters continued shouting.

"What's this mini-bar charge?" Wayne asked in confusion as he looked at the hotel charge.

"Honey, the kids threw the mini-bar out the window," Wanda told him calmly.

"And that's _our_ fault?"

"Well..."

"Excuse me! Pardon me!" called out Murray as he pushed his way through the crowd to the reception desk with two large postal boxes, "Yeah, I've got a couple of people to express mail!"

"Friends! Please, stop!" a black bat then called out as he flew over the reception desk.

"It's too late, Rat Bat!" Murray shouted negatively to Dracula.

"Please!" the vampire said as he resumed his real form, "I'm begging you! I need you to help me find Rapunzel!"

"The HUMAN?!" Wayne yelled, "She could've killed us!"

"She touched my guitar!" Murray exclaimed, outraged.

"I kissed her hand!" shouted Griffin in disgust.

"She let me eat her bicycle!" yelled the old gremlin lady, and the crowd gasped in shock.

Overcome with guilt, Dracula slumped as his broad shoulders dropped and he announced shamefully, "I know I lied. I was wrong. But you have to believe this; Rapunzel wasn't a bad guy. The truth is I don't even know if humans are bad anymore."

"It wasn't his fault entirely," Sirena announced, as both she and Bianca stood up on the reception desk beside the Count, "Bianca and I brought Rapunzel here because we thought she was a half human half witch hybrid because she has a magical ability with her hair to heal injuries, although Salem was the one who gave her the idea to find the hotel in the first place because of her hair."

"We know it's impossible to believe, but we have seen the magic of her hair with our own eyes," added Bianca. "And Rapunzel turned out to be a sweetheart with big dreams. She didn't try to hurt us when she helped to create a fantastic wedding for the Steins, right?"

The crowd went silent. Everyone thought deeply about what they were told. Some of the monsters, Murray and Griffin, looked at each other in confusion and a few, Wayne and Wanda, had sympathy for Dracula.

"Frank, c'mon, buddy," he pleaded, placing his hand on one of the large boxes, "You understand."

"He's not talking to you," Eunice said irritated, muffled in her box, "First you tell us humans are bad, now they're good, what else? Up is down, cold is hot, gremlins don't smell."

"Hey!" yelled an insulted male gremlin as he held up his arms, oblivious to his own pit stains.

Frank then popped his head, held by one of his hands, out of his box and said, "I really liked Rapunzel. Monster or no, she told fun stories."

"I think we zinged," Dracula said guiltily, referring to himself and Rapunzel.

"You ZINGED?" Wayne and Wanda gasped together in surprise.

"But I got in the way of her dreams," Dracula further confessed.

"You only zing once in your life," Frank said tearfully as he began to spark.

"Oye, now you're short circuiting," Eunice said brashly as she popped her head out of her own box.

"I don't care," Frank cried.

"I don't think so, Frank," Dracula said a bit tearfully, making a silence fall again, "It's possible to zing more than once in your life. I love Rapunzel with all my heart. But I pushed her away because I, I…"

He didn't need to say anything, the looks on everyone's faces showed they understood.

"Rapunzel was so nice, I really liked her," Wanda said.

"I liked her, too," Eunice said a little more supportive and sadly, "She's not just nice, she had moxie."

"Has everyone of you monsters gone crazy?!" an outraged Vlad flew out of nowhere in his bat form, before resuming his original form. "Have you forgotten what humans have done to us, especially Martha?!"

"No!" Dracula yelled in defense as he tried to reason with his father, "but it doesn't matter to me anymore if it was a human who killed Martha, because Rapunzel is nothing like Gothel. I love Rapunzel."

"I don't believe this!" Vlad shouted as the monsters step aside to give Vlad and Dracula some space to talk face-to-face. "Humans are still humans, who hate us all!"

"That's what you're a wrong, dad!" Dracula declared as he marched towards his father. "What if humans have changed? What if they forgot the past?!"

"I don't want you to ruin this family, son!"

"But, _you_ did in the first place! Once you had possessed my raccoon to make my fangs grow and you only think about bloodlines and traditions, so I was out of your life! I don't want to be part of your stupid tradition! I want to live my own life! Because of what have done to me, you never got a chance to change or to have time with me, or a chance to get to know Martha! YOU'RE the one who ruined our family."

"Rapunzel is just a lowly human who hates and fears us!" Vlad huffed. "And what about the shame she brought to you?"

"There is no shame!" Dracula defended passionately. "No matter what happened at the party I love her, and I know she loves me, and I'm not going to mess that up again."

"You're a fool!" Vlad shook his head as he yelled accusingly at his son.

But Dracula remained calm as he announced with that same passionate sentiment, "Rapunzel is the sweetest, kindest, most special girl I have ever met, and you can't give the woman I love the blessing she deserves because she's human, then YOUR the fool!"

Everyone was only in silence, including Vlad. He didn't know what to say to his son, his face fell into a regretful frown as he his son's words echoed in his mind, and it made his old heart ache with sadness and regret.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt this father-son argument, but look what the guards have for you." Salem gently tugged at Dracula's cape to get his attention.

There came a hard clanking sound as the suit of armor guide stood at attention to Dracula and saluted as he reported, "Sir, here are the prisoners as you requested."

Several more armor guards rolled a rather large barred cage into the lobby, and tightly packed in were the ogres and a still frozen Quasimodo with his finger still up his long nose and still muffling out inaudible protests.

Something hot and dangerous rose up within Dracula at the very sight of them, and he flew at them like a blue comet as he grabbed Quasimodo by his chef's coat through the cage bars and his eyes began to glow a deadly red as he shouted out in raging anger, "How did you know about HER?! Tell me NOW!"

Quasimodo only answered with a frozen muffle, but Dracula could see fear within his yellow eyes. He frowned in resentment at the hunchback and released him from the immobilizing spell and hissed at him, "What did you say?"

"I-I said it wasn't me, it was the old lady," Quasimodo stammered as his face squished against the bars, "She promised me a chance at payback if I helped her."

"Old lady? What old lady?"

"Lady Gothel," one of the ogres spoke up, surprisingly in a timid voice.

One of his friends tried to shush him up, but it was too late as he now piqued Dracula's interest.

"Gothel?" he repeated in recognition of the name.

"Yeah, she was our boss, for eighteen years we worked for her," the same ogre continued, "She had us guard the tower where she kept the girl, the baby she had stolen from the royal family for her magic hair she got from the magic flower Gothel lost a long time ago."

Dracula released his grip on Quasimodo, causing him to slip down the bars and crash on his rump as Dracula's anger then changed to deep worry and concern. "Oh no! She's in trouble!"

"So, what are we doing?" Griffin yelled in excitement, "Let's go get Rapunzel! C'mon!"

The rest of the crowd gave their cheers to help Dracula bring his human lover back. The vampire gave the, a big adorable smile that lit up his pale face and further brightened his piercing blue eyes.

The Count flew in a trail of blue mist as his friends followed quickly close behind him, Frank's upper torso mistakenly bounced on the two honeymooning flees, flattening them. They popped back up and one of them chittered in irritation, "We should have honeymooned at your parents'!"

Out in the window, the only other monster to be even more outraged by this revelation was Bela as he yelled in a fury, "A HUMAN! RAAHH!" He left deep claw marks on the window. But he remembered watching the human girl and her 'mother' leave. With an evil smirk, Bela determined to hunt down that insult to monsterkind and gladly destroy her as he flew off to the haunted forest to track her down before the Drac Pack could find her.

Standing at the hotel's entrance, Vlad followed close behind to watch the Drac Pack squeeze into a hearse and drove like crazy down the bridge. Wayne looked out a side window and let his tongue flap in the wind, like a happy dog going for a ride.

Vlad wanted to follow them, but then stopped as though hesitant. But with a swish of his cape he transformed into an old bat in a fog of red tinted black cloud, and followed the hearse at a slow pace.

* * *

Back at the tower, Rapunzel sat upon her bed while Gothel carefully unbraided her hair. With a stroke of evil genius, Gothel was convinced that her sly comments and tricks would finally turn Rapunzel against Dracula and everything they had done together. She made sure Rapunzel was too affected by the ordeal to try leaving again. She wanted to keep her magic flower close, never letting her out of her sight ever again.

Picking the flowers out of her hair, Gothel scolded Rapunzel for leaving the tower, "I did warn you, Rapunzel. The world is a cruel and selfish place. And if it ever finds a single drop of sunshine, it destroys it."

Rapunzel never said a word.

"Now, I'm going to make hazel nut soup for dinner," Gothel added, "That will cheer you up." Then she left the room and closed the curtains.

Rapunzel lay down on her bed as Pascal patted her foot comfortingly. She sighed and glanced at the flag Dracula had given her at the festival in the kingdom, wishing that it had never happened. Then she stroked her stomach down to her crotch, remembering the night he made love to her, the night she lost her virginity. She wished that had never happened either.

With a heartbroken frown, Rapunzel lifted up the sun flag before eyes and compared its symbol to the flowers painted above her. They were uncanny similar - the exact shape and size. Why, even the number of petals on the flower matched the number of rays of the sunburst. And then she noticed that other parts of the ceiling and wall had sunbursts hidden in them. They were everywhere! All around her she could see the crest of the kingdom beaming down at her. Rapunzel darted to the center of her bedroom, gazing upward at this phenomenon.

Suddenly, a memory came to her. It was a strong memory - one of seeing the sun symbol above her. And then she noticed two fuzzy outlines of a man and a woman that resembled the mosaic of the king and queen she had seen in the village marketplace. And their baby - the baby princess who had green eyes and long blond hair, just like her. And then she noticed a fuzzy outline of a man dressed in black fighting off Gothel, the man turned out to be Count Dracula. He had fought with Gothel trying to rescue the baby girl.

And then, Rapunzel fell back against her dresser, realizing with absolute conviction that SHE was the lost princess. She was the one who those lanterns had been sent out for every time on her birthday. She was the one - the one that was stolen away from her crib. She _was_ the lost princess!

Downstairs, Gothel had heard the noise of Rapunzel falling against her dresser. She called up to her room, "Rapunzel, what's going on up there? Are you alright?"

Rapunzel parted the curtain as she stepped out, her eyes wide as she mumbled, "I'm the lost princess."

Gothel rolled her eyes and scolded, "Speak up, Rapunzel. You know how I hate the mumbling."

"I'm the lost princess!" Rapunzel repeated out loud and turned to her, retorting, "Aren't I?"

The dark haired woman gaped at her, not believing what she just heard. How did her flower find out?

"Did I mumble, Mother?" Rapunzel retorted. "Or should I even call you _that?_ "

Gothel quickly shook her head, trying to play it off as some silly fantasy Rapunzel cooked up. "Oh really, Rapunzel. Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

But Rapunzel knew better. She pushed Gothel away, snapping, "It was you! It was all _you!_ "

Gothel looked down at her seriously, muttering, "Everything I did was to protect you."

Rapunzel shook her head and stormed down the staircase to the floor. "I've spent my entire life hiding from people or monsters would use me for my hair - when I should have been hiding from _you!_ " She turned around, staring defiantly at the woman who deceived her for eighteen years.

"Where will you go?" Gothel questioned. "He won't be there for you."

"What did you do to him?" Rapunzel demanded, eyes narrowed at the mention of Dracula.

"Nothing, except knowing his powerful father he will order his minions to destroy his hotel... and everyone in it," Gothel answered dismissively.

Rapunzel gasped, immediately concerned for her friends' safety. "No!"

Gothel smiled and tried to speak calmly, "Now, now, it's all right. Listen to me. Everything," she raised her hand to set it on the girl's head, "is as it should be."

"NO!" Rapunzel seized Gothel by the wrist, preventing her from touching her hair. "You killed Martha, and you hurt Dracula! You were wrong about the monsters! You were wrong about the world! And you were wrong about _me!_ " Gothel tried to break free of Rapunzel's grasp, stunned that the girl had become stronger and was fighting back. "And I will _never_ ," Rapunzel vowed boldly, "let you use my hair again!"

At last, Gothel managed to pull her hand away but she accidently knocked over a standing mirror. It crashed to the floor, shards of broken glass scattered everywhere. That was when Gothel realized that her power over Rapunzel was gone - broken just like the mirror.

But just as Rapunzel turned and headed toward the window to make her exit, Gothel's expression changed into an evil glare. If she wanted to keep her flower, she would have to do it by force.

"You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now _I'm_ the bad guy."


	18. The Search for the Lost Princess

The hearse exited from the underground tunnel and drove off into the haunted forest at rapid speed.

"Okay, so where am I going?" asked Griffin, behind the wheel.

"The tower," Dracula replied with determination in his voice, "Before Rapunzel's gone forever! And then, we must take her back to the human world!"

But Murray remembered something important as he asked worriedly, "But what about the sun?"

Dracula looked outside, noticing a faint sunlight through the heavy clouds and the shadows of the closely gathered trees. Murray had a point.

"I don't know," Dracula said, determined not to let the sun get in his way, "I'll just have to _roll._ "

"He just rolls," Wayne grumbled, "Rollability."

As they drove through the forest, Dracula explained his plan to the others, "So we follow their footprints until they run out. Then that's where you come in, Wayne."

"Me?" the werewolf said surprised.

"There!" the vampire yelled as his sharp vision spotted something on the ground, an item he recognized too well. "Yes," he smiled widely, "I knew something would fall out of that basket." He picked up the item, Rapunzel's paintbrush, and instructed his werewolf friend, "Work your magic."

"Wait, you want me to track the smell?" he said, "No, no, no, my sniffing and tracking days are way behind me. Do you how many diapers I've changed? How many number twos have destroyed this thing?" He pointed to his poor nose, but then smiled as he added, "But-"

Wayne gave a high pitched whistle, inaudible to average ears but only audible to canine ears. The Drac Pack suddenly heard far off high pitched puppy howls that got closer and closer until the ravaging pack of werewolf pups were seen running through the forest. The pups swarmed the area on a rampage while Dracula backed up. They were so out of control they shook at the hearse, one of them even tried to scare the Drac Pack inside by growling at them.

"Sit!" Wayne instructed, but none of them listened, even as he took the paintbrush from Dracula. "Smell. I said 'smell'!" Two of his pups started sniffing at his rear end. "Not me, the paintbrush! The paintbrush!"

"Do any of your kids still respect you!" Dracula questioned sarcastically.

"Mm, give me second." Wayne said as he thought for a second and then realized something, "Oh, yeah. Winnie! Front and center!"

The pack of wolf pups abruptly stopped their roughhousing to let Winnie, a little wolf girl wearing a pink tunic with a skull on it and sucking a binky, through and stand in front of their dad, and resumed their play fighting. Winnie spat out her binky and took a deep whiff of Rapunzel's paintbrush.

"She was taken by an old woman, but she doesn't look old but she's getting old," she said and then sniffed again, "They went on a long walk through the forest to a tall tower place, where she cries now," she sniffed again as her father and the vampire exchanged looks, "The old woman used the magic of her hair to get pretty, and now she's keeping pretty Rapunzel tied up in the tower forever."

"We have to find that tower, she's in trouble I know it!" Dracula cried worriedly, fear in his eyes.

"The old woman had a pot of hazel nut soup cooking," Winnie continued and sniffed one last time, "It's Rapunzel's favorite meal."

"Okay. Thank you, cutie," Dracula spoke sweetly to the little werewolf girl and then sternly yelled to her rowdy brothers, "Now all of you, go back to your mother!"

The wolf pups did as they were told, including Winnie.

Swiftly Dracula returned to the hearse, and they drove off again, now entering the human forest, with the sun's rays out. Dracula's friends grew worried for their friend, who was looking deeply worried himself.

"SHEEP!" Dracula shouted as he spotted a lone sheep blocking the road.

Griffin quickly turned the wheel in panic, narrowly avoided hitting the sheep. But the hearse drove far off the roar crashing down an unpaved steep hill. Somehow he managed to find the road again on a small mountain freeway, but not without Murray almost falling out and Frank had to pull the mummy back in.

"Whoo! High-Five!" Griffin cheered enthusiastically. "Don't leave me hanging."

The others screamed and freaked out as they spotted a whole flock of sheep up ahead and Dracula shouted, "LOTS OF SHEEP!"

"I got this one!" Wayne said excitedly.

The werewolf was out of the car in a flash as his friends watched in horrified expressions as Wayne devoured the whole herd in two seconds, was then back in the hearse and belched a tuft of wool out.

"Ooh!" he breathed after his big 'meal.'

All of his friends, still kept their horrified faces at the road where the herd of sheep once stood, then turned and gave him disgusted glares.

"What?" Wayne said as though it was nothing, "Now there's no sheep in the road. Let's go."

"That was pretty sick, man," Murray said bitterly, voicing the others' feelings.

"You eat lamb chops; it's the same thing!" Wayne replied in annoyance, "We don't have time for this! Come on, let's move it!"

The Drac Pack resumed driving down the road as fast as the old hearse could go, but for Dracula it wasn't nearly fast enough, which just frustrated him more as his determination to find and save Rapunzel from that despicable Gothel grew more and more like a building volcano readying to explode.

Before they got further down the road and deeper into the woods, Bela swooped out from nowhere and nearly crashed into the car. It startled Griffin and the passengers inside so badly that the invisible man swerved violently in rapid circles as he stomped on the brakes to stop the hearse, only to then crash the front into a large rock embedded in the ground. Fortunately, the crash was light and no one was really hurt, just disoriented.

Dracula flew out of the car like a shadow with an angry scowl on his face as he faced Bela, who landed in front of the terrified monsters and mocked at them, "Well, well, well, the traitorous son of Vlad and his rejects!"

"Hello, Bela," Dracula growled with a clear sneering disdain for the bat crony, "It's been a while. Not long enough for my tastes."

"For once I agree," Bela yelled in a roughened raspy voice with clear near equal disdain, "And it sickens me to say it."

"What the hell are you doing here, anyway?" Dracula demanded, "I thought you'd be spending the rest of eternity wallowing in sleep in my father's cave."

Bela snorted as he mocked back with his signature yelling, "And I never would've taken you for a lover of humans, softy. Time has made you weak, and that so-called hotel of yours is proof of it."

Dracula growled as his jaw clenched tightly, his eyes glowed a sharp red, and his fists tightened. He was not in the mood nor did he have to time to trade insults and bantering with with this abysmal nuisance of a monster.

"Go back to the hole you crawled out of, Bela," Dracula growled at him, "I don't have time to deal with your trouble mongering crap."

The rest of the Drac Pack joined their friend's side and stood defiantly before Bela, showing they supported Dracula and weren't going to back down.

But Bela smirked maliciously as he said smugly, "Then maybe this will change your mind."

From behind his back he revealed in his claws a struggling Winnie. The Drac Pack gasped in shock, Dracula even lost the red glow from his eyes, Wayne most of all at seeing his only daughter in danger.

"Winnie!" Wayne yelled with fatherly fear and concern as he tried to run to her, but Dracula held him back for her safety.

It was even at this moment Vlad had caught up to them in bat form and his eyes widened at what he witnessed his lead Bat Crony doing.

Bela laughed maniacally as he threatened, "Do anything and the little mutt gets it!"

Winnie bravely struggled to get free of her captor as she yelled, "Let me go!"

Bela brought her nose to nose as he yelled back at her, "Stop squirming!"

"Let her go, Bela!" Dracula boldly ordered the crony, "Why are you doing this? Monsters shouldn't threaten other monsters!"

"Because this is WRONG!" Bela shouted like it should have been obvious, and shrugged, "Just like it's wrong to pander with the enemy! Why don't you get that!? And why don't you get humans DON'T belong with monsters!"

"YOU'RE wrong!" Winnie bravely yelled in defense of Uncle Drac's new love, whom even she had adored.

"I am NOT!" Bela shouted back at her, "I'm holding you hostage, and me and my crew are gonna tear your human hugging hotel to shreds! And then I'm gonna kill that human blonde bitch you like so much... Dracula!"

"You can't, I won't let you!" Dracula retorted defiantly, strong feelings of fear rose within him at the threat of loosing his home, the sanctuary he built for all his friends, their families, and most important of all in Martha's memory, for the entire hotel was a shrine to her. That same fear grew at the very thought of Bela threatening his beloved Rapunzel.

"Really? And why not?" Bela further mocked.

"Because..." Winnie answered bravely, if now a bit fearfully.

"Because why?"

"Because it'll make Uncle Drac sad."

"Oooh, sad," Bela mocked with a squeak, "And what are you gonna do about it?"

"I don't know, but I'll make you sorry!" Winnie claimed bravely.

But Bela wasn't buying it as he began to insult her, "You know why you don't know? Cause you're just a WEAK... LITTLE... BRAT! You're ALL weak, and there's nothing you can do to stop me and my crew! AH-HAH-HAH-HAAHH!"

Winnie then bravely bit down hard on Bela's hand. The bat crony let out a cry of pain and suddenly threw her far and hard to the ground. She rolled across the ground as she whimpered in pain, it made the Drac Pack gasp with shock.

"Winnie!" Wayne cried as he ran to his fallen little girl, holding her in safety and reassurance as she whimpered and sobbed quietly in pain, but smiled at her daddy as the rest of the Drac Pack looked on in concern.

"Hah-hah-hahhh!" Bela laughed maniacally again, "And I'm gonna do worse to that weak human girl! I'll tear her flesh from her bones and drink her blood! And whatever is so special about her hair, I'll tear it all from her skull!"

Dracula slowly looked back at Bela with a angered scowl as something snapped inside of him at the very thought of any harm coming to Rapunzel, and after witnessing what Bela had done to Winnie. His eyes turned red again as his jaw tightened and his hands clenched into fists. A strong gust of wind spread in a circle from his very being as he levitated a few feet off of the ground, causing his long black cape to flutter and billow behind him. His friends backed away slowly from him, knowing what he was going to do, as a deep growl vibrated in the vampire's throat and his fangs extended longer.

Suddenly, Dracula unleashed the loudest and most powerful roar of righteous fury, "RAAAWWRRR!" and it send a surprised Bela flying for many meters back crashing through shrubs and tree trunks; even the strongest, sturdiest trees bent back at the power of his roar as leaves flew off in the air and bird were sent flying, and animals fleeing in fear for a few miles at the power of his roar.

Bela finally crashed into a large tree trunk and shook away any lingering disorientation as he growled in frustration, yet he felt invigorated at the thought of finally having a real fight. He suddenly unleashed his own powerful roar, carried by the wind to Vlad's cave as it called the remaining Bat Cronies slumbering inside. Dozens of red eyes opened as the roar echoed throughout the vast chamber. A large swarm of Bat Cronies flew out from the large cave with chitters and cries as they followed the call back on the air and heeded their leader's summon.

"Is she okay?" Murray asked as he and the others, save for a still floating Dracula as he breathed heavily from adrenaline, ran up to Wayne as he cradled Winnie.

"She's going to be okay, but we need to get her back to the hotel," Wayne said.

"I'm okay, Daddy," Winnie assured her father as he carried her to the hearse, then released a sudden growl as she noticed Bela get back up.

The lead Bat Crony threw a large boulder at the Drac Pack in retaliation, but from the air Dracula flew at the big rock and punched it to rubble and dust, then transformed in bat form and flew at Bela like a missile. He sent the bat crony flying back again as the vampire punched him hard in the face. The Drac Pack watched in awe and cheered encouragements for their friend.

Seemingly faster than grease lightening, Dracula back elbowed Bela in his face, then gave him rapid one-two punches; finally as he did a loop-de-loop he delivered a powerful upper blow to Bela's jaw and it made a few small teeth fall out and again Bela flew back at the punch.

Dracula's friends cheered on as he flew back to them and changed back to his real form in a puff of blue mist and stood triumphantly in front of them. But the victory was short lived as they all then heard a feral cry through the trees, making them freeze in fear and look around the heavily shadowed forest.

"What was that?" Frank asked a bit timidly.

Through the trees, they could see dozens of winged silhouettes flying towards them and they suddenly became dozens of Bat Cronies that landed hard and surrounded the Drac Pack, some even growling or roaring at them in challenge.

Full of a rushing thrill, Dracula made fists as he readied for another fight and smiled as he said eagerly, "Oh, this'll be fun!" and rushed into the fight, while his friends weren't so sure but inspired by his passion it rallied them and they smiled in eagerness for a fight.

With vampire swiftness, Dracula flew at some incoming Bat Cronies as he punched one, then another, and back elbowed another in the air. He then saw more flying at him like a swarm to topple him, but he spun in place on the ground with glowing red eyes and immobilized them all in the air with a pleased look. He glided away proudly several meters away before he snapped his fingers to unfreeze them and the Bat Cronies crashed into each other.

After Wayne gentle placed Winnie into the crashed hearse for safety, he told her to stay even through she said she wanted to help, the rest of the Drac Pack charged forth with battle cries to fight the hoard of Bat Cronies. Frank karate chopped one on the head and bashed his face into the ground; Murray sent thick sandstorms flying into their faces and blinding some, then turned into a swarm of beetles and blanketed more cronies. Griffin used his invisibility to take advantage of the cronies by swinging a thick tree branch in the faces of the unsuspecting cronies.

Wayne leaped atop one and chewed at his ear, but the crony seized him by the throat and slammed him to the ground just as two of his friends surrounded the werewolf. Wayne whistled loudly and the cronies suddenly found themselves surrounded by dozens of wolf pups, all growling at them and suddenly being attacked by them; one crony even got engulfed by a cartoonish wave of were pups, while Wayne watched with a proud smug smile on his face.

Having watched the whole time from some nearby tree branches while still in bat form, Vlad felt a mix of strange emotions at what he was witnessing and something in him seemed to transform into a newfound respect for his son, but he was conflicted about his duty to upholding tradition and a pure vampire bloodline. But suddenly it didn't matter as he joined his son, who again was in bat form, and they were back to back as they punched at more Bat Cronies like an unstoppable team.

Father and Son resumed their humanoid forms as Dracula asked with surprise, "Dad, what're you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Vlad shot back with a smile, "I'm fighting with my son."

"Go, Drac!" Frank shouted as he punched another crony, "Go find Rapunzel, we'll hold them off here!"

Dracula looked conflicted for a moment, but Vlad nodded at him with a smile before flying off at vampire speed to fend off his own minions. With a swish of his cape, Dracula resumed his bat form and flew off into the forest in search of Rapunzel's tower, certain it had to be somewhere between his hotel and the Kingdom of Corona. He won't lose another woman he loved to that greedy and selfish Gothel. Never again.

Unknown to Dracula, Bela had seen him fly off and followed him at a short distance with as much stealth as possible, angered to have been beaten to a pulp by Dracula and disgusted by the vampire's devotion to Rapunzel.

Meanwhile, the rest of the bat cronies had realized their own master was helping the enemy to defeat them, and many had enough sense to flee from the fight and flew off back to the cave with painful whimpers, not wanting to risk their master's wrath any further.

The Drac Pack cheered at this as they watched the remaining bat cronies flee with their tales between their legs. Vlad smiled proudly the most. Before any of the Drac Pack could thank him for his help, Vlad saw with his enhanced vision Bela was trailing Dracula.

With a swish of his cape he transformed into his bat form and began following them. Unfortunately, due to his old age Vlad moved at a slow pace than his younger son, but he knew he had to help Dracula however he could before it was too late.


	19. The Climax

Flying though the forest as fast as he could, Dracula used his advanced sight powers to find Rapunzel's tower, but all he saw were trees, trees, and more trees. His frustration grew, but he knew he couldn't give up.

He then noticed some movement from the shadow's below as a familiar voiced called out to him, "Master, follow me! I'll show you the way to the tower!"

It was his cat, Salem, and without question he followed her through the forest as she traveled and blended through the shadows as swift as he was, if not faster.

Before long she had lead him to a hidden cave covered in moss and cringing vines, the tall entrance covered in a curtain of vines. He flew through the entrance, and before long the cave opened to what looked like a beautiful hidden valley or a cove with an open grassy field with different vibrant flowers, a waterfall flowing into a small stream, all surrounded by walled mountains, and in the center was a tall tower covered in vines.

Dracula looked around the hidden basin, amazed at how he never even knew this place existed and it was no wonder Gothel had hidden from him all these years. He noticed grey clouds blocking out the sunlight and he took his chance to fly to the top of the tower and through the open window, transforming back into his original form before Salem emerged from the shadows near the window.

"Rapunzel?" he panted as he looked around the darkened room frantically, "Rapunzel, are you here?"

Suddenly, he spotted a trail of long golden hair leading to a heavily shadowed corner of the room where he heard a faint muffle, but he knew it was Rapunzel and his heart soared she was here and she was okay.

"Oh, Rapunzel, my love," Dracula gushed as he took some steps to the certain silhouette of his beloved, "I thought I'd lost you and I'd never see you again."

But Dracula's relieved smile disappeared when he realized something was wrong. There was Rapunzel chained against the opposite wall, and seemed to be struggling to get free as she tried yell a warning through the gag binding her mouth, with a fearful look in her green eyes.

While Dracula was distracted, from the shadows behind him a dark female figure emerged from the window to quietly and malevolently approach the vampire as she slowly raised a deadly dagger in her hand. Sensing a dark presence behind himself, Dracula's eyes narrowed as Rapunzel continued to try and warn him with pleading muffling; Gothel was right behind him.

"Look out!" Rapunzel tried to warn him through her gagged muffling.

The next moment, with such speed Dracula whirled around to face Gothel, his eyes deadly red as his fangs lengthened and his claws grew longer. He gave off a threatening hiss as he saw Gothel's face was twisted with a murderous anger, and he was ready to devour her blood if it meant saving his beloved Rapunzel from her this manipulative old witch.

It was a moment frozen and stretched in time, for though Dracula was fast, in that moment Gothel was faster and seized her chance. Suddenly the next thing Dracula knew, he felt a horrible excruciating pain agonizing in his chest. "Aaagh!" he cried.

The red hue was lost from his eyes and he became numb with shock as he stared into Gothel's dark eyes, her lovely face twisted with malice satisfaction. His eyes widened and overcome with shock as he slowly looked down and noticed Gothel's dagger in the very center of his chest. All he could do was stare at it as he flexed his claws and groan in agonizing pain.

"You recognize this?" she whispered dangerously to him, "It's the same dagger that pierced the heart of your wife. A simple wooden dagger dipped in the purest silver, made just for you and your kind. Poetic justice, as this is how I've felt for so many years. This is for spurning me all those years ago."

"Hgh," Dracula groaned as Gothel sank the dagger further into his chest and twisted it, making him flinch in pain as she continued, "And kidnapping my precious flower."

Dracula only shot her a saddened look through his pain as he looked at Gothel in the eye, and slowly put a gentle hand on her shoulder as he said through shallow and labored breathing, "I... I didn't know... h-how you really felt. Ugh... m-my father... only a pure... bloodline... uugh..."

Gothel's eyes narrowed dangerously again as the dagger was withdrawn maliciously from his body, causing Dracula wince in pain. Gothel watched impassively as Dracula fell to the floor close to her feet.

"No!" Rapunzel screamed as Dracula collapsed onto the flagstone floor. She cried with dread, worried for her vampire lover as he kept grasping at his chest and struggled to breath. She struggled through her chains to get to him, but it was futile as her chains were unbreakable.

Gothel gestured towards the vampire, chiding over his groaning, "Now look what you've done, Rapunzel. But don't worry, dear," she said calmly, walking past the two vampires and towards her captured flower, "our secret will die with him."

Rapunzel continued to fight against her shackles, scrambling to reach the injured vampire. Gothel seized the chain that held Rapunzel captive and began pulling her to a trap door that lead to a hidden stair case, muttering, "And as for _us_... we are going where _no one_ will ever find you again!"

Pascal, who had been watching from the shadows, rushed out and clamped his tiny mouth over the hem of the witch's dress trying to heroically prevent Gothel from taking Rapunzel away. The witch sneered at the little chameleon and cruelly kicked Pascal away. Salem, who had recovered, leapt out of the shadows with a screech. She landed on Gothel's head, sinking her fangs into her hair and digging her claws into her scalp. Startled yet angered, Gothel struggled to pull the black cat off her head. Finally, she pulled the cat loose and threw her against the wall.

The next moment another little bat flew through the window and materialized into the older vampire, Vlad, who had followed Bela through the forest, but at some point had lost him in the shadows, and recently followed Dracula as quickly as he could. Now seeing Dracula clutching his bleeding chest on the floor, Vlad became shocked and outraged as he kneeled by Dracula's side in worry.

"Dad..." he groaned, and Vlad could see his son struggling to breathe as he reached out to something. The elder vampire turned and saw Gothel and her captured prisoner, the human girl with the golden hair his son had fallen in love with.

Vlad's pale blue face twisted with rage as he yelled, "You murdering bitch!"

He leaped at her, but even surprised by the arrival of another vampire Gothel was ready as she drew her silver dagger again as Vlad leaped at her in a fury. First she was able to stab him in his abdomen, but even though Vlad was ancient he was still tough enough to temporarily shrug off the stab wound and pull Gothel's dagger from himself by her wrist, and they began to struggle for the weapon.

Vlad's eyes turned red while he snarled and tried to wretch the dagger away from Gothel. Both had hatred in their eyes, Gothel's an evil madness as she tried to wretch herself away from Vlad's grip, and finally pushed him off of herself but in the process lost her dagger. As Vlad came at her again, Gothel pulled something else from her dress and shoved it right into the side of Vlad's face. He screamed in agony and fall to the floor near his son.

"Dad!" Dracula groaned, reaching out to his father but grasped at his chest as his wound got worse.

Vlad grasped at his face, which now had a strangely shaped red burn. He glared at Gothel in anger and confusion, but he could see she held a silver holy cross in her hand.

"Don't think I wasn't prepared," she chuckled dryly.

As he collapsed to floor grasping his face, Vlad could only look on as Gothel again began pulling Rapunzel's chains towards the trap door, commanding her, "Let's go, Rapunzel."

From where the Count lay, Dracula stared blearily up through pain-misted eyes. He could vaguely hear Rapunzel still yelling for help within the gag, and every shriek made Dracula's heart hurt in agony that had nothing to do with the angry wound on his chest. Then, inexplicably, his hearing and vision sharpened, and he saw that Gothel was having trouble tugging Rapunzel towards the open trapdoor.

"Rapunzel, really!" The evil witch shouted, jerking the girl backward. "Enough already! STOP FIGHTING ME!"

With a tremendous heave, Rapunzel fell back down on the floor, her arms twisted behind her due to the chains. She whirled around to glare at Gothel, her gag lying loosely around her neck. "NO! I won't stop! For every minute - of the rest of my life - I will fight! I will _never_ stop trying to get away from you!"

Gothel grit her teeth at Rapunzel's declaration, her anger grew at her 'daughter's' stubborn resistance.

Then Rapunzel declared more, "I will escape and find a way back to the man I love, because he's shown me so much more than I ever dreamed possible. We're meant to be together, I _felt_ it. We're part of each other now, and I won't let you take that away from me!"

Gothel raised a suspicious eyebrow, and this also got an injured Vlad's attention as he too looked suspicious of what the blonde girl was trying to say.

"What are you saying, Rapunzel?" she asked.

Through his agonizing pain, Dracula smirked as he declared with a chuckle, "We made love."

"YOU WHAT?!" Vlad yelled in disbelief as he clutched half of his face and allowed his healing powers to do the rest, "Drac, how could you? You have ruined our bloodline! She's a human, and they hate us, just as we hate them! How could you do something so stupid and foolish!"

Dracula didn't answer. He couldn't as his breathing became further labored and he felt his strength fading away. The wound he suffered would have killed a normal human, but his healing abilities kept him alive, just barely. The stab wound had been too close to his heart and he could feel his very life energy fading away as he coughed.

However, Vlad gave his own cough as he continued with more reserved and sadder tone, "Ah, who am I kidding? You were right, Drac, _I'm_ the fool. I screwed your mother before we got married. Since it happened to me, it happened to you. Love is love, no matter who it is."

Suddenly Gothel's face had twisted in an angry sneer as she looked like a volcano had exploded. "YOU, AND HIM?! You blood sucking son of a bitch! You really are a sex driven monster! You've ruined her! Defiled her! Why?! It should have been me! ME!"

Rapunzel and Vlad were confused at her angered ranting, not knowing what she was talking about.

"What are you trying to say?" Rapunzel asked with pity in her voice.

The witch sneered in response and yanked on the chains, seething in jealousy, "He's besmirched you! Corrupted you! Enthralled you and robbed you of your innocence! Your a child! He's a night stocking blood sucking vampire, and his kind feed you!"

"Well, you're no catch, lady!" Vlad joked bitterly, "I thought she was beneath my son, but I see now she's got shit."

"It should have been ME!" Gothel screamed, but everyone remained confused, though poor Dracula cried in agony due to his injury.

"More than 100 years ago," she explained, "I was just an old lady whiling the last of her days away in solitude because I was a humble herbalist, but I was condemned as a witch because of my vast knowledge of healing plants. Where I lived people feared me and I was driven from my home by those horrible, selfish people. I nearly fell off a cliff in the mountains. But then HE appeared, first as a bat that caught me in the middle of the fall, and then as a man, the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I didn't care if he was a vampire, because if he did his bite would make me young and beautiful again, just as I always wanted. I only knew I had to have him, to have him love me back. I tried for months to find him again and to find a way to become young again. The short version is I stumbled upon the magical golden flower one night and it made my dreams come true, it kept me young and beautiful for many, many years. I finally found him one night only to discover he had married another - MARTHA LUBOV! I pleaded to him but he turned me away like I was nothing and I only knew in that moment I had been rejected. So I vowed if I ever found him again I will destroy him, because if I couldn't have Dracula _,_ _no one will_!"

It wasn't a story, it was clear insane ranting. But Rapunzel felt different emotions when she heard this story, shock, disgust, and most surprising of all some pity for a miserable and lonely soul who had no one to care for and thought no one cared about her, and only knew fear, hatred, and ostracizing from others for being different.

Then in a rather disturbing way, Gothel gave what was once a warm motherly smile as she said, "But I now know I don't need him, or anybody else. I have you, I raised you as my own and I learned what real love really is. I can't forgive your betrayal, Rapunzel, because I lost one dream, and I won't let that monster take away another one from me." She lost her smile as her face became evil again as she concluded, "Which is why we must go. NOW."

Gothel pulled fiercely on Rapunzel's chains again, but still continued to resist. "No! I told you I'll won't stop fighting until I get away from you, and never let you use my hair again!" And then, Rapunzel continued to speak in a calm serious voice, "However, if you let me save him, I will go with you."

Gothel's grip on the chain relaxed, still frowning. Pascal and Salem weakly looked up, especially Vlad, shocked that Rapunzel would say something like that.

"No, no, Rapunzel!" Dracula protested, weakly trying to get up and clutching his chest at the same time. Why would she sacrifice her freedom for him? The very thought of never seeing Rapunzel again was far worse than what he endured.

But Rapunzel ignored his pleas and gazed up at the old woman who held her captive for eighteen years. "I'll never run or try to escape. Just let me heal Dracula, you let Vlad go free, and you and I will be together forever, just like you want. Everything will be the way it was. I promise, just like you want. Just let me _heal_ him."

The witch glared at her flower, considering the proposition, but the glare on her face told that she was skeptical about it. It would easier to find a new life if the girl stopped fighting her. And she knew, no matter what happened, that Rapunzel _always_ kept her promises. Especially if she dealt with someone she cared about, and evidently she cared about that vampire a lot. So, to show she wasn't without a heart, and to not have Rapunzel hate her more than she might now, Gothel agreed.

The witch unshackled Rapunzel and went over to the Count. Dracula felt his body propped up against the banister of the stairway leading to Rapunzel's bedroom. Slightly glaring at the old woman, the Prince of Darkness felt Gothel roughly secure his right wrist with one of the heavy iron cuffs, but left some garlic at his feet and some more at his father's side.

Then Gothel jerked him towards her, hissing, "In case either of you get any ideas about following us." She swept away as Rapunzel knelt down to the coughing, weakened Dracula.

The girl tenderly stroked Dracula's tormented face, stammering, "Dracula." He looked so weak, she knew his immortal vampiric strength was leaving him, and she had to act fast if she was going to save him. Gingerly, she reached down and removed Dracula's hand from where it had been covering his wound. She winced, seeing how deep the red gash was. He had already lost a lot of blood.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Rapunzel apologized, "Everything's going to be okay." She gathered up a lock of her hair and tried to put it on Dracula's wound.

"No, Rapunzel." Dracula pushed her arm away.

Rapunzel tried again, telling him even as he shoved her arm away, "I promise, you have to trust me."

Dracula shook his head, moaning, "No."

Rapunzel pleaded with her dying lover, "Come on, Dracula. You just have to breathe."

Dracula coughed painfully, "I can't let you do this."

"And I can't let the one I love die," Rapunzel whispered, setting a hand on his cheek.

Dracula continued to object, muttering, "But if you do this, then you'll die."

"I'll be fine," Rapunzel assured the vampire.

Vlad looked over at his son. He could see in his son's eyes that Dracula didn't want to lose the girl he loved. He had given her the freedom she deserved. He knew that Dracula knew that as Rapunzel healed him, both of them would lose each other forever. How he wished he could do something to help. He had already lost a wife and a daughter-in-law, now he was close to losing his son.

And then, Dracula felt something cold and flat on his hand. It was one of the pieces of the broken mirror. An idea formed into his mind. But Dracula, despite his dying, couldn't let Gothel win. In a microsecond he resolved he would rather die than let Rapunzel sacrifice her freedom, her dreams, her own life for his own because his life will be empty and meaningless without. It was the only way to make it up to her, to show her he loved her that much. Yes, he will give his life for hers.

Just as Rapunzel began to sing, Dracula suddenly grabbed the blonde tresses just behind her neck. Using his last ounce of strength, Dracula pulled the mirror shard upward, cutting every single strand of hair. By doing that, he cut the last chain keeping her away from freedom. His hand fell to the floor with the mirror shard as it dropped out of his hand. Immediately after Dracula had cut Rapunzel's hair, it transformed from blonde to brown.

Rapunzel reached up to grasp now extremely short brown locks, exclaiming in shock, "Dracula! Wha-?" She picked up the long hair that had fallen on her lap, watching as the dark brown color race up its length.

Even Vlad's reaction mirrored that of Rapunzel's to his own son losing his last chance of survival. "Drac what did you do?"

Gothel's eyes popped in shock and fury. "NO!" The greedy witch tried to gather up the rapidly changing hair in her arms, demanding it to return gold. "No! No, no, no!"

But as she gazed at the brown hair in her hand, feeling its power disappear, her muscles instantly turned weak. Her skin pale and wrinkly, and her switched from black to almost transparent white. Her face changed also, its lush youthfulness vanishing so that it appeared as an old, witchy mask resembling her true wickedness on the inside.

"What have you done?!" Gothel screeched, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" She tossed the useless normal long hair aside and ran over to the broken mirror. Staring into the shattered glass, Gothel backed up in horror at her own hideous reflection. Covering her face with her hood, she moved backwards, getting closer and closer to the open window.

Near the window, Salem and Pascal picked up a long piece of the hair to hold it up high enough for the old witch to trip over. Gothel tripped and fell out of the window, screaming in defeat. The Drac Pack, who had all arrived to try and help rescue Rapunzel, halted in their tracks as they caught sight of Gothel falling, until with a faint whoosh - Gothel's cloak hit the ground. There was no trace of the evil witch for she was gone forever.

Although, Frank had fainted in shock and his large body crushed upon the invisible man as he fell, causing Griffin to shout, "Get off me!"

Regaining her senses from the shock of watching Gothel die, Rapunzel felt herself pulled away from the window to find Vlad had healed and freed himself only to show her that his son was still dying.

Rapunzel quickly pulled the younger vampire into her lap, as if she were cradling him. "No! No, no, no, no! Dracula?"

Dracula coughed feebly, barely able to open his eyes.

Rapunzel turned his face up at him, pleading with him, "No... look at me. Look at me, I'm right here! Don't go. Stay with me, Dracula!" She grabbed his hand, brining it to her hair as she tried to sing the healing incantation, but Dracula interrupted her.

"Rapunzel..." Dracula whispered softly, "You were my new dream."

"And you were mine." By now, a rain of tears escaped from Rapunzel's eyes.

And then his face grew paler still, and with a sigh of release, Dracula was gone.

Rapunzel felt tears burning within her eyes, gazing down at the vampire who had risked his life for her. He had scarified himself for her. And now he was dead. Looking up at Vlad, she could see him burying his head in his son's shoulder, sobbing.

The girl laid a comforting hand on Vlad's wrinkled blue hand. He looked up at her, eyes red and face stained with tears. Slowly sliding his arms around her waist, Dracula pulled Rapunzel into his embrace. Both of them sharing tears of sorrow. Even Pascal and Salem lowered their heads in mourning, crying softly.

Without knowing why she did it, Rapunzel began to sing the healing incantation, murmuring quietly, each word filled with sorrow, "Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine."

Rapunzel bent her head over Dracula's forehead, whispering mournfully, "What once was mine." And as she cried, one of her tears fell on Dracula's still face. As soon as she finished her song, the tear sank into his pale cheek.

Suddenly Dracula's skin began to glow with a golden light. Vlad and Rapunzel stood up, watching in amazement as a shimmering radiance began to blossom from Dracula's wound. It was a bright, shining light that twisted and turned, its tendrils shooting up into the gloomy rafters of the tower. It spread outward like the very golden flower it came from, filling the room with sunlight. Then as quickly as it had come, it vanished.

Amazed at what just happened, Vlad and Rapunzel reached out to check Dracula's wound. The deep red gash had vanished, leaving only unbroken smooth pale skin as if it had never happened. They gazed intently at his face, hoping to see if it really healed him.

Dracula's eyes slowly opened and quietly spoke his son's name, "Dad. Rapunzel."

Rapunzel nodded, enthusiastically. "Dracula?"

"Did I ever tell you I've got a thing for brunettes?" he teased, reaching out to touch her face.

Now crying with tears of joy, Rapunzel laughed at his joke, she leapt onto him throwing her arms around his neck. Dracula held her tightly to himself, hardly believing he deserved to see her again.

After wiping a tear from his eye, Vlad punched Dracula in the arm. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" he scolded in a fatherly tone.

"Ow!" Dracula winced, rubbing his arm. "I already had enough pain for one day."

From outside the roof looking through a small opening, an enraged and livid Bela saw the happiness unfolding, and it disgusted him. He wanted to kill that human bitch now. The crony tore through the roof and landed menacingly in front of the terrified Dracula and Rapunzel. Bela grabbed the nearby wooden stake that nearly killed Vlad, and leaped forward to murder Rapunzel, shoving Dracula out the window in the process.

"Dracula!" Rapunzel reached out for him, while she was held back against her will by the angry Bela.

"Rapunzel!" Dracula screamed as he nearly made contact with the ground, only to transform into a bat and fly back up, with his friends watching in horror close by.

Rapunzel flinched and tried to shield herself with her arms, but when Bela's stake was mere inches from Rapunzel's chest, the giant lead bat crony was suddenly immobilized in a thin cloud of red tinted mist. Rapunzel and Dracula gasped in silence to see Vlad with his arm outstretched at his traitorous minion.

"Don't ever come near me or my family again!" Vlad warned with finality as he made a gesture with his long gnarled fingers and Bela suddenly shrank down to the size of a harmless rat.

In panic, the small Bela tried to run away, but he was intercepted by Salem, licking her lips. Rapunzel shut her eyes. All she could hear was the sound of Bela's high-pitched screams until they died out, ending with Salem gnawing on his tiny little bones until she released a loud belch.

Dracula chuckled as Vlad joined his son by his side with a smile. "Daddy," he said to his father with a newfound respect, admiration, and love, "You just saved a human."

Vlad gave a fatherly laugh as Rapunzel rushed over to embrace Dracula, who returned the embrace with such affection. "I'm sorry about how I treated you, Rapunzel. I see now not all humans are evil, and I put too much pressure on you both. Who cares if she doesn't have fangs." He waved it away humorously. "I don't have fangs anymore, either. Look." He pulled out his dentures.

Rapunzel laughed at Vlad's cheeky sense of humor, but Dracula frowned in disgust. "Okay, Dad, I just came back to life. Put 'em back in before I die in my own barf."

As Rapunzel gazed into the eyes of her lover, she seized his collar and kissed him, rather enthusiastically. Dracula returned the gesture. Vlad smiled, and so did the Drac Pack, all cheering and throwing fists in the air.

After climbing down from the tower wall, Pascal covered his eyes and turned red the second he caught sight of Rapunzel kissing Dracula. Salem, on the other hand, made a gagging gesture to her tongue and said, "Can I be the first to say ew?"


	20. Celebrations and Epilogue

King Frederic and Queen Ariana were in the library, the queen silently reading a book while the king had been gazing out the window lost in his own thoughts, when suddenly the door flew open. The guard had a bewildered look on his face. He told them instantly of what the King and Queen were not expecting to hear; their lost princess had returned at last.

Rushing to the balcony entrance, the king and queen threw open the doors. To their surprise, there stood a group of strange-looking monsters. A golem, an overweight mummy, a werewolf and his young child, a pair of floating glasses, and two vampires; both of them wore large, wide, man-brimmed hats to protect them from the sun. The monsters, hearing the king and queen walk out, slowly parted to reveal their long lost daughter.

Upon seeing the Queen's face, Rapunzel knew instantly that she was certainly her mother. She had the same emerald green eyes and her hair the exact same shade of brown. Slowly, Queen Ariana approached her daughter. She slid a hand underneath Rapunzel's chin, smiling tearfully. Rapunzel gasped quietly as she gazed into the loving, gentle eyes of her real mother. And then she embraced Rapunzel, smoothing down her hair.

In her mother's embrace, Rapunzel smiled tearfully at her father. King Frederic cried in his own happy tears with a deep chuckle as he enveloped both his wife and daughter in a tender bear hug, sinking down with them to the balcony floor.

The monsters sighed happily as they watched this truly heartfelt reunion between a daughter and her parents. Queen Ariana held out a grateful hand to Dracula, who at first expected it to be a handshake. Instead the queen pulled the vampire down into the hug. Thought momentarily surprised, Dracula sank deep into the family hug.

Not wanting to feel left out, the rest of the Drac Pack gathered around to join the family. Vlad hesitated, but after Dracula extended his hand out to his father, the elder took him and got pulled into the hug. Pretty soon Vlad felt like the happiest vampire in the world to feel the love and acceptance of a family.

"Well, you can imagine what happened next..." Dracula narrated, "The entire kingdom rejoiced - for their lost princess had returned. The part lasted a week and, honestly, I don't remember most of it."

The entire village was filled with happy, cheering, and dancing villagers all celebrating the return of their lost princess. Surprisingly, even the monsters had come out of the shadows to join the celebration when it turns out the people in Corona like them, especially when the humans began dressing in outrageous and colorful monster costumes.

"But, I felt terrible for my mistakes so I confessed what I had done to her parents to keep my wonderful Rapunzel all to myself because I knew I would always protect her. But I told them I realized now she needs to discover things for herself. She might stumble and fall, laugh and cry, but such is life. The truth is Rapunzel and I were meant to be. We zinged. And if I must give my trust to someone else, I'm thankful that it is her. I expected them to banish or execute me, but instead they forgave me because it was only because not only did I return her and rescued her. It's because I loved her and I didn't want to be alone so I tricked her into staying with me, and they understood."

On the balcony, Dracula told the entire story to the king and queen. He could see their reactions were silent shock without saying a word. The vampire slumped his shoulders, his head hung low, waiting for the consequences of his actions. However, Rapunzel smiled at his heartfelt apology and gave him a quick peck on the cheek to show her acceptance of his apology. Looking up at her parents, the king and queen nodded to show they accepted his apology. With a relieved sigh, Dracula leaned his head against Rapunzel's shoulder tenderly.

"The king and queen declared my kind as their friends and allies forever. After peace was made between the human world and monster world, my friends surprisingly went on to do weird if great things. Frank wrote a best selling book called 'Pieces of Me' and Eunice started up a fashion company for humans and monsters."

Frankenstein is signing autographs for his human and monster fans on the pages of his books and Eunice cuts a red ribbon to declare her fashion company open to a cheering crowd.

"Speaking of fashion, Murray finally won the heart of Cleopatra after much flirting at the celebration and he went on to be a fashion show judge. Sirena and Bianca, well, they found their calling."

Murray sits beside Cleopatra as he examines the fashion designs worn by the contestants at the fashion show, who turn out to be Sirena in a scaly and seaweed mix combined to look like a dress, and Bianca in a lavender bikini, to which Sirena frowns because it looked too revealing on Bianca.

"Not much changed for poor Wayne, even then his rowdy kids overwhelmed him. But he soon became a sports coach, even though he has a problem with catching and burying balls. Wanda, meanwhile, became a children's activity instructor for a school in the town."

Wayne is demonstrating his tennis skills by chasing after a tennis ball in the court like a dog and catches it, than digs up a hole to drop the ball in and buries it. Wanda has become a children's activity instructor since she adores kids, especially her own little ones who never change.

"And Griffin, he claims he met an invisible girl at the party and had a zing. We all thought he was trying to pull a ruse on us because he was always the one without a girlfriend. Turns out she was real. Go figure. And they married a few months later."

Griffin danced alone for a few minutes but then bumped into somebody behind him and gasped. It was a real invisible woman, and it was another zing as hearts danced between them. Griffin began doing a waltz with her.

"Thanks to Salem, rodent problem in the kingdom disappeared almost overnight... as did most of the fish. And Pascal, well, he never changed."

Salem is calmly licking her paws when a mouse tries to sneak past her, then she goes into attack mode and immediately chases off the rodent thanks to her special shadow abilities. But upon her return she manages to steal a fish from the market so she can eat it for later. Pascal is given a piece of orange fruit from a group of four little girls and immediately changes to an orange-yellow color the second he eats it.

"At last, Rapunzel had come home. And she finally had a real family. She was a princess worth waiting for. Beloved by all, she led her kingdom with the same grace and wisdom as her parents did before her. And, as for me, well, I continued to run my hotel and started allowing human guests in my castle... and my father and I grew closer after we made amends."

Rapunzel delicately placed a flower in a little girl's hair, then turns to find her parents waiting to hand her a beautiful golden crown with jewels. The crown fit her head as if it had been made for her. She embraced her parents, grateful for their gift, before they all started watching Vlad and Dracula doing a shimmy together in perfect sync.

"But I know what the big question is. Did Rapunzel and I ever get married?"

Just then, Rapunzel began to feel nauseous and ran off. The only person to take notice was a concerned Dracula. After following her to the bedroom where he met the court physician who told him what the reason was for Rapunzel's sickness, Dracula's eyes lit up and gasped in surprised happiness. He scooped up Rapunzel in a loving embrace and spun in a mini whirlwind. After he slowed down, Rapunzel tilted her head up for a kiss and Dracula gladly bent down to accept her offer.

"Well, I'm pleased to tell you that Rapunzel discovered she was pregnant during the celebration. And after days of asking and asking and _asking_... I finally said yes to have her as my wife."

The second Dracula and Rapunzel kiss, the scene changes to a wedding ceremony where monsters and humans broke out in applause for the newly married couple; Dracula and Rapunzel. Her parents applauded with happy tears. Pascal and Salem sat beside them, applauding as well. Dracula's friends, their wives and girlfriends, including Sirena and Bianca were the bridesmaids and groomsmen, with Frank as the best man and Eunice as the maid of honor, and little Winnie as the flower girl.

"Dracula!" Rapunzel's voice interrupted, knowing too well Dracula had made that last part up.

"Okay, okay, heh-heh." Dracula chuckled in defeat. "I finally asked her to marry me, and the wedding was perfect, just like a fairy tale wedding should be."

"And we lived happily ever after," finished Rapunzel. "The End."

* * *

Dracula smiled at the two little girls in front of him as they clapped their tiny hands and cheered loudly when the story had finished.

"That's our favorite story, Daddy," cheered Aurora, a sweet cherub faced little girl with long rich brown hair in a low ponytail and emerald green eyes.

"Tell it again, please, Daddy?" begged her twin sister Luna, a pale faced but equally sweet girl with long raven black hair with widow's peak bangs and sapphire blue eyes, and when she smiled there were two tiny fangs.

"No, girls, it's time for bed," Rapunzel spoke with a gentle motherly tone. "You can hear it again tomorrow." Her brown hair had gotten longer over the years reaching her waist, but not quite as long as her usual blonde hair.

"Aww," the two girls groaned.

"Cheer up, girls," Dracula added, who spoke in an affectionate fatherly voice. "If you get to bed quickly, I'll make you wormcakes for breakfast!"

The loving parents, with the help of Pascal and Salem, gentle tucked the twins into bed and gave them goodnight kisses. After that, the couple made their way to their own chambers, formerly only Dracula's chambers, and cuddled up together in their luxurious bed.

"Sweet dreams, my beloved," Dracula cooed sweetly while he kissed Rapunzel passionately.

"Sweet dreams, my honeybat," Rapunzel whispered with equal sweetness as she returned the kiss, and they soon drifted off to a peaceful slumber.


End file.
